Clayfeld Holds On

ISBN: 022630342X

Author: Pack, Robert

Condition: New

from Clayfelds Farewell Epistle to Bob PackBeneath this mellow harvest moon,I can still picture you-a boy contentjust fishing with his father from a ledgeabove a foaming stream. The flailing troutyou caught is packed in gleaming ice;the pink stripe all along its sideis smeared across black shiny dotsthat seem to shine with their own light.Im sure that you can picture mewith equal vividness, and though were notidentical, there is a sensein which I am inventing youas much as youre inventing me.In Clayfeld Holds On, Robert Pack offers his readers a comprehensive portrait of his longtime protagonist Clayfeld, who is also Packs doppelgnger, his alternate self, enacting both the life that the poet has lived and the life he might have lived, given his proclivities and appetites. Poet and protagonist, taken together, are self and consciousness of self, the historical self and the embellished story of that literal self.Written with a masterly ear for rhythm, and interweaving narrative and lyrical passages, the poems recount Clayfelds formative memories while exploring concepts such as loyalty, generosity, commitment, as well as cosmic phenomena such as the big bang theory and black holes. Through all of this, Pack attempts to find purpose and meaning in an indifferent universe, and to explore the labyrinth of his own proliferating identity.