Errancy

Although I appreciate all of Jorie Graham's books, this one, from the perspective of ten years, stands out. It is purely and simply one of the greatest books of poetry ever written in English. Every poem opens the mind to new beauties, new perspectives, and new uses of language. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

"After the rain there was traffic behind us like a/ long kiss./ The ramp harrowing its mathematics like a newcomer who likes/ the rules./ Glint and whir of piloting minds, gripped/ steering-wheels..." So begins "The Scanning," the first long poem in this intricate and hypnotic collection. The traffic becomes a running theme, as do religion ("It was this day or possibly the next that I saw clearly the impossibility of staying in the Church of England," "Jacob waiting and the angel didn't show") plurality ("subaqueous pasturings," "the grammatical weave"), as well as certain words ("glint" is an almost tiring favorite) and less-than-concrete imagery ("[t]he soundless foamed"). This book has fascinated me since I first came across it almost 10 years ago, as a high school junior snooping in a friend's parents' bedroom. I can say honestly and without embarassment that it took me years to get a grip on it. Certain parts are easier to digest than others ("The Guardian Angel of the Little Utopia" and "Willow in Spring Wind: A Showing" are dazzlingly accessible), but it's the larger movement of the book-length sequence that I have come to appreciate as Graham's real specialty. That being said, The Errancy is at once her most cohesive and complex book. Swarm far surpasses it for difficulty but not for pleasure. Never idles; Overlord stands shocked. Though I don't think the copious Ashbery comparisons are entirely justified, I do know that he and Graham are in a similar vein of difficulty. But I also don't find it necessary to investigate the sweeping philosophical and mythological history and extensive "silent quotation" infused in her words to recognize her powers. She is a difficult writer, true, but one of razor-sharp and majestic vision.

Yes, Graham's The Errancy is in the spirit of Stevens and Ashbery--perhaps even inheriting their spirits--and what's wrong with that? This is my favorite book from a poet who has transformed American poetry--like Ashbery and Stevens before him--and has become in my mind the single greatest poet in the English language. The book is a chore and a treat--I recommend it very highly!

Jorie Graham captures the mood of contemporary America in vivid and masterful language; her writing remains personal and passionate yet evokes broader, universal themes, calling the reader into her delightful creations and leaving them completely satisfied in their efforts. A tour-de-force of modern poetry.

In the Middle Ages, nobles employed individuals whose responsibility it was to illuminate manuscripts with images of fantastic color more glorious than the words themselves. Jorie Graham's illuminations of the natural world transform the ordinary (relationships, landscapes, experiences) into poetic, philosophical and theological tapestries of immense depth and complexity. In this book the "Aubade" and "Guardian Angel" series of poems are particularly powerful. All of Graham's poems are worthy of revisiting over and over again if only for the astonishing ways that revelation explodes from the "usual and customary" world throughout her work.