“One of Still Lifes many achievements is its paradoxical mix of intensity and stillness. Alexander Longs visions of landscape, identity and "History itself, a joke that no one gets" are simultaneously meditative and alert, restless and focused. This is a smart, compassionate poet. Still Life is a mesmerizing new book.” StillsBookLife IsVisionIdentityPoetAchievementSmartJokesFocusedLandscapeIntensityCompassionateStillnessRestlessParadoxicalNew BooksStill LifeMesmerizing Author:Terrance Hayes
“That's a fairly Wordsworthian way to look at things! But yeah, actually - part of the poet's work, I think, is to maintain or reintroduce the imaginative capacity of their earlier self while nonetheless maturing. And I do think the more successful the poet is at this particular thing, the greater their achievement as a poet.” ThinkingSuccessfulPoetAchievementMatureImaginative Author:Shane McCrae
“The Baathist state did two things extremely well. One was create information-gathering intelligence networks and a filing system. There's actually a lot of information on a lot of people and that is a major achievement of a police state. The second one is the promotion of literature and poetry, and the arts generally. So this is a state that's producing mass police archives - surveillance - and poetry. And in fact a lot of the archives are about what poets are writing or what they should be writing.” PeopleWritingArtLiteraturePoetAchievementPolicePromotionPolice State Author:Elliott Colla
“The worth of a civilization or a culture is not valued in the terms of its material wealth or military power, but by the quality and achievements of its representative individuals - its philosophers, its poets and its artists.” ArtistCultureLiteratureIndividualTermWealthQualityMilitaryPoetMaterialsCivilizationAchievementPhilosopherProsperityRepresentativesMilitary PowerMaterial Wealth Book:Selected writings: poetry and criticism Source: Selected writings: poetry and criticism