Bøger af Karl Elder

In dialect quite unlike any other, a xenophobic teenager reveals the story of his destiny begun when he confesses under the spell of his one-room schoolhouse teacher and surrogate mother that he possesses memory of the future. Only a crazy, he fears, would believe what he knows to be true, that he will become the world's best three-cushion billiard player, despite that he has never seen such a table in his life. For now, he must endure calamity-magnified by an array of wearisome paranormal gifts, including that of a somnambulist who draws in his sleep-in his rural community, where mayhem and miracles abound, moving him into the role of witness and reluctant disciple of a new religion espousing an ecological ethic.

Gilgamesh at the Bellagio opens memorably as Karl Elder confronts the reader with his always-astonishing prosodic acrobatics, showcased this time in 26 deeply intelligent decasyllabic abecedarians. It ends with more of the same (but backwards ) in Z Ain't Just for Zabacedarium. Glimmering in between is the title poem, which recreates, with sardonic humor and a perfect ear for the vernacular, aspects of society's profound collective melancholia. A tour de force by a superlative American poet. --Marilyn L. Taylor, Contributing Editor of The Writer. These intellectual poems owe a debt to the tradition of cerebral poets: Shakespeare, Donne and the metaphysicals, Modernists like Eliot, Pound, and Stevens, and John Berryman's Dream Songs, although they also reference pop culture figures. Difficult at times, Elder's poems merit careful attention, both for their fresh approach to form, as well as for their range of subject matter and their wit, and they reward close, repeated readings. --Wendy Vardaman in Free Verse. Karl Elder] is, for my money, writing some of the most innovative and resonant verse out there. And, man, he is out there. Not that theres anything wrong with that. I mean that while he seems to have his literary ancestors like the rest of us (Stevens for his lushness, Donne for his wit, Berryman for his change-up syntax pitch), he seems to come at the world from an angle uniquely his own. --Beth Ann Fennelly in Black Warrior Review. In this book you'll find a gambling/gamboling Gilgamesh framed by sassy romps through the alphabet. Whether Elder is coming or going, h's always having fun and so, reader, will you. --Lola Haskins, author of Desire Lines. Karl Elder is a clever manand poet. . . . inventive . . . imaginative and energetic . . . . Why not enjoy a bit of this welcome relief from our extended bitter recitations? Shakespeare occasionally gave us a fun break even in his tragedies. --Paul Zimmer in Georgia Review

Karl Elder, Lakeland University''s Fessler Professor of Creative Writing, has gathered the best of his poetry in Alpha Images: Poems Selected and New. This 270 page volume includes over 50 new or previously uncollected poems. Noted for exceptional range-his work in open, closed, and invented forms-Elder''s verse is similarly multifaceted in his choice of subject matter.