Handwriting

Sumptuous, steamy, downright sexy: on the blush-o-meter Ondaatje scores a 10. Those who can't get enough of his melodious prose--most notably in The English Patient, which earned him the Booker Prize in 1992--will find the same lyrical genius in his verse. In his 10th collection, Ondaatje transports us to his childhood home of Sri Lanka. With strikingly sensuous imagery, he conjures a land of bangles, cattle bells, stilt-walkers, and a 1000-year-old buddha "buried in Anuradhapura earth, / eyes half closed, hands / in the gesture of meditation...roots / like the fingers of a blind monk / spread for two hundred years over his face. " As the title suggests, Handwriting is an elegiac tribute to the ancients who in "wild cursive scripts...spent all their years / writing one good book"; whose "physical yearning / became permanent" and "desire became devotional. " In his Sanskrit and Tamil love poem, "The Nine Sentiments, " Ondaatje not only proves most definitively that music is the key to unlocking a reader's heart, but also argues for poetry's healing powers in times of strife: The brush of sandalwood along a collarbone Green dark silk A shoe left on the cadju tree terrace these nights when "pools are reduced by constant plungings" Meanwhile a man's burning heart his palate completely dry on the Galapitigala Road thinking there is water in that forest Ondaatje's final poem, "Last Ink, " explains why the need to preserve human experience through art is as instinctive as the desire to die in a lover's arms. Dealing with large-scale emotions and scenes of love and war, these are poems that strike to the heart.

Michael Ondaatje is a major poet. There are no two words about it. He brings his poetic vision and unique signature of lyricism again to words with his latest collection of poems, 'Handwriting'. This is Ondaatje's latest book of poetry since The Cinnamon Peeler published in 1991. 'Handwriting' contains a collection of well-crafted poems reminding us that Ondaatje is undoubtedly among one of the best living poets today.Most of the poems of this excellent anthology are set in Sri Lanka. Some images and references crafted by Ondaatje come from Sri Lanka where he has ancestral roots. Similar to his classic novel, 'Anil's Ghost' Ondaatje demonstrates his intimate knowledge of the history, art, friends and recent events of Sri Lanka in this collection of poems. For me, there is also a very personal appeal to the poems in this collection. As a person who grew up in Sri Lanka, I am familiar with places and historical references he brings into his works in 'Handwriting'. However, anyone without any knowledge of Sri Lanka could also understand and appreciate Ondaatje's poems as they have a universal appeal despite the fact he leaves the reader with place or location names such as Galapitigala Road, Mahaweli and Kataragama etc. Even when Ondaatje writes on specific locations or on historical facts he writes about life, love, war and death which has a universal appeal to any reader whether they have an understanding of locations, place names or historical nuances appearing here. Even if you don't have a personal knowledge of Sri Lanka's history or its culture you can still appreciate Ondaatje's poems.Ondaatje is indeed very different to ancient poets of Sri Lanka who "wrote ... on rock and leaf / to celebrate the work of the day, / the shadow pleasures of the night." But we can still read and appreciate these ancient poems centuries after they were written "on rock and leaf". In 'Handwriting', Ondaatje's achieves a similar goal; he shares his poetic gift with us like donating a precious gem that we can keep and appreciate as long as we live and pass on to the readers of next generation.

A quantum leap in modern poetry, M. Ondaatje's new book ofpoems elevates him into the ranks of the truly original. With much tosay about life, death, and love, he brings the myths and history of Sri Lanka into the public consciousness in a book that is as compelling as it is graceful. And with his signature lyricism and timelessness.It is as much a portrait of the struggle of art as it is of the places and eras he visits.Not to be missed.

Ondaatje did a fabulous job with this collection of poems. It was the first of his that I ever read, and I was amazed. (I'm still amazed two weeks after I finished it.) Ondaatje has a style all his own, and I love it! The poetic language that seemed so pretentious to me in The English Patient held me spellbound.I'm hooked.

If you long for the words that take hold of your heart, and won't let go, listen to Ondaatje's music. In this book of verse set in exotic Sri Lanka, the images are sensuous, intoxicating,and transporting. His writing is simply beautiful . For the uninitiated, and those with a romantic heart's longing, do not miss this collection by one of today's finest writers.