From Library Journal
Kirby's attachment to the ordinary persistently dissolves into the absurd. "Transmutation as a Fact of Life" could be the title poem. Frying sausages, he meditates on the "Great Mystery"; a man in the Bath tea room stumbles into the cave where King Arthur sleeps; Elvis Presley and Dracula fuse into children; husbands in bathrobes "have something to say" but "they do not know what it is." These semi-escapist fantasies not only indict the norms that society assumes are inviolable but expand into bitter-sweet mini-dramas that underscore the falsity of illusion. Like Kenneth Koch, Kirby produces elegiac meditations on impermanence that range from witty anecdotes to brilliant snapshots of frustration, lost beauty, and the ravages of time. Frank Allen, Assoc. Dean, Continuing Education, Allentown Coll., Center Valley, Pa.Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Book Description
Winner of the 1987 Brittingham Prize in Poetry.
Saving the Young Men of Vienna FROM THE PUBLISHER
In 'The Peaceable Kingdom' of a David Kirby poem the framing of an identifiable voice and a strong, encompassing closure brings and blinds together the paradoxical, the funny, the sad, the messy, the precious in aesthetic concord. His pallete is brighter and braver for its inclusion of the often-scanted hues of statement, idea, vivacity of language and an interest in beings beyond the self. - from the foreword, by Mona Van Duyn.
Art & Photography
Book Info
