University of Iowa Press, 2007 Paper: 978-1-58729-621-5 | eISBN: 978-1-58729-769-4 Library of Congress Classification PS3620.O88C66 2007 Dewey Decimal Classification 811.6
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Complex Sleep, Tony Tost’s ambitious second book of poems, leaps upward with an astounding multiplicity of voices, utterances, and bursts. Each leap marks a sure and precise entry into a world of images, ideas, and sensations that is brand new—the true accomplishment of any poetic work.
The octet of poems that compose Complex Sleep comprises a complex organism, audacious in scope, swiping at meaning via language as fragmented music. Tost takes on the problem of physical shape, reorchestrates phrases according to the alphabet, and writes himself into the hypnagogic state between waking and dreaming. Informed by their own procedural constraints, these poems invent forms that tap the unconscious poetic, the very complexity embodied in sleep. All the while, Tost reforms utterance beyond the mere epistemology of much contemporary poetry.
Devising an innovative formalism rather than concerning itself with discovering the what, Complex Sleep is about discovering how to say what needs to be said. Skip the opera, this book performs.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Tony Tost is a graduate student at Duke University. His ?rst book, Invisible Bride, won the 2003 Walt Whitman Award. His poems have appeared in such literary journals as Hambone, No: a journal of the arts, Mandorla, Typo, Fence, Talisman, and LVNG. He edits the online poetry journal Fascicle.
REVIEWS
"This reflexive and, yes, complex collection of procedurally nuanced anti-lyrics is a useful example of what is happening right now. Tost’s approach is speechy and textual by turns. He hypnotizes you with his tricks but then convinces you to concentrate on how good the work is. You wake up feeling refreshed and thinking how excellent it is to enjoy reading poetry this much! "—Laura Moriarty
“Like none other, Tony Tost conceals himself above the page (‘a bird over the battlefield’ of poetry) and watches as the poem unfolds on its own terms, like a tree contained in its seed. Tost also planted the seed, of course, and what’s inside is ‘a balance in the realism’ that contains the bird’s song, about to turn into the poet’s magisterial recitation. And in Tost’s revolutionary title poem, ‘Complex Sleep,’ the revolving of day and night becomes the inevitable ‘dear repetition’ of all we know: the alphabet sings, literally a to z.”—David Rosenberg, coauthor, The Book of J (with Harold Bloom) and See What You Think: Critical Essays for the Next Avant-Garde
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Imaginary Synonyms
Squint
World Jelly
A Northern Eros
Ink Drop
An Emperor's Nostalgia
"Complex Sleep"
Timeless
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
University of Iowa Press, 2007 Paper: 978-1-58729-621-5 eISBN: 978-1-58729-769-4
Complex Sleep, Tony Tost’s ambitious second book of poems, leaps upward with an astounding multiplicity of voices, utterances, and bursts. Each leap marks a sure and precise entry into a world of images, ideas, and sensations that is brand new—the true accomplishment of any poetic work.
The octet of poems that compose Complex Sleep comprises a complex organism, audacious in scope, swiping at meaning via language as fragmented music. Tost takes on the problem of physical shape, reorchestrates phrases according to the alphabet, and writes himself into the hypnagogic state between waking and dreaming. Informed by their own procedural constraints, these poems invent forms that tap the unconscious poetic, the very complexity embodied in sleep. All the while, Tost reforms utterance beyond the mere epistemology of much contemporary poetry.
Devising an innovative formalism rather than concerning itself with discovering the what, Complex Sleep is about discovering how to say what needs to be said. Skip the opera, this book performs.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Tony Tost is a graduate student at Duke University. His ?rst book, Invisible Bride, won the 2003 Walt Whitman Award. His poems have appeared in such literary journals as Hambone, No: a journal of the arts, Mandorla, Typo, Fence, Talisman, and LVNG. He edits the online poetry journal Fascicle.
REVIEWS
"This reflexive and, yes, complex collection of procedurally nuanced anti-lyrics is a useful example of what is happening right now. Tost’s approach is speechy and textual by turns. He hypnotizes you with his tricks but then convinces you to concentrate on how good the work is. You wake up feeling refreshed and thinking how excellent it is to enjoy reading poetry this much! "—Laura Moriarty
“Like none other, Tony Tost conceals himself above the page (‘a bird over the battlefield’ of poetry) and watches as the poem unfolds on its own terms, like a tree contained in its seed. Tost also planted the seed, of course, and what’s inside is ‘a balance in the realism’ that contains the bird’s song, about to turn into the poet’s magisterial recitation. And in Tost’s revolutionary title poem, ‘Complex Sleep,’ the revolving of day and night becomes the inevitable ‘dear repetition’ of all we know: the alphabet sings, literally a to z.”—David Rosenberg, coauthor, The Book of J (with Harold Bloom) and See What You Think: Critical Essays for the Next Avant-Garde
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Imaginary Synonyms
Squint
World Jelly
A Northern Eros
Ink Drop
An Emperor's Nostalgia
"Complex Sleep"
Timeless
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE