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- Bright Existence
A celebrated poet's vision of our dynamic universe.
The poems in Brenda Hillman's new collection, a companion volume to her recent Death Tratates, offer a dynamic vision of a universe founded on the tensions between light and dark , existence and non-existence, male and female, spirit and matter. Informed in part by Gnostic concepts of the separate soul in search of its divine origins ("spirit held by matter"). This dualistic vision is cast in contemporary terms and seeks resolution of these tensions through acceptance.
BRENDA HILLMAN is the author of Coffee, 3 A.M. (1982), and three other books of poetry published by Wesleyan University Press, White Dress (1985), Fortress (1989), and Death Tractates (1992). Her work has won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award for Poetry and the Poetry Society of America's Norma Farber First Book Prize. She teaches at ST. Mary's College in Moraga, CA. Her other books, all published by Wesleyan, include Cascadia (2001), Loose Sugar (1997), Death Tractates (1992), and Fortress (1989).
"One of the most interesting books to appear in recent years ... Bright Existence is a mysterious and rich collection; of how many books can that be said? It rewards return investigations ... In a contemporary poetic terrain where physical experience is being catalogued as never before, it is wonderful to have someone working the spiritual, but not spectral, upper registers with such quiet, skillful passion."
~The Gettysburg Review
""Hillman's imagistic gift is great . . . but like Frost she also has a gift for phrasing, for catching the tones of a speaker's thought""
~Mark Jarman, Hudson Review
""One of the most interesting books to appear in recent years Bright Existence is a mysterious and rich collection; of how many books can that be said? It rewards return investigations In a contemporary poetic terrain where physical experience is being catalogued as never before, it is wonderful to have someone working the spiritual, but not spectral, upper registers with such quiet, skillful passion.""
~The Gettysburg Review
""The range of images in [Bright Existence] is astounding . . . Hillman's ability to perceive the universal in the minute, the strange in the familiar, transforms everyday activities such as recycling, eating burgers an d fries at McDonald's, and running errands (cleaners, shoe repair, butcher, dentist) into moments of spiritually charged healing . . . A fine collection.""
~Choice
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