Forbidden City (Phoenix Poets)

ISBN: 022634956X

Author: Mazur, Gail

Condition: New

from Mount FujiA draughtsmans draughtsman, Hokusai at 70thought hed begun to grasp the structuresof birds and beasts, insects and fish, of the wayplants grow, hoped that by 90 hed havepenetrated to their essential nature.And more, by 100, I will have reached the stagewhere every dot, every mark I make will bealive. You always loved that resolve, youd repeatjoyfully-Hokusais utterance of faithin works possibilities, its reward, that,at 130, hed perhaps have learned to draw.Gail Mazurs poems in Forbidden City build an engaging meditative structure upon the elements of mortality and art, eloquently contemplating the relationship of art and life-and the dynamic possibilities of each in combination. At the collections heart is the poets long marriage to the artist Michael Mazur (1935-2009). A fascinating range of tone infuses the book-grieving, but clear-eyed rather than lugubrious, sometimes whimsical, even comical, and often exuberant. The note of pleasure, as in an old tradition enriched by transience, runs through the work, even in the final poem, Grief, where our ravenous hold on the world is a powerful central element.