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Essays, Manifestos, Statements, Speeches, Maxims, Epistles, Diaristic Jottings, Narratives, Natural histories, Poems, Plays, Performances, Ramblings, Revelations, and all such ephemera as may appear necessary to bring society into a slight tremolo of confusion and fright at least.

SOUND / (system)

Stephen Ratcliffe

Written between June 1, 1991 and January 31, 1992 the poems of this volume employed the letters of Henry James as a source in order to explore the poetics of narrative, sound as thought and the shape of works as meaning. The series of poems functions almost as a poem-as-novel investigating the phenomena of poetic sound, of the sounds we hear, those we don't, the meanings that those sounds do or do not convey, and the lyricism of poetry-where what we hear is often blurred, misunderstood, and confused as in everyday experience.

Stephen Ratcliffe lives in Oakland, California, where he teaches at Mills College. He is the author of over 16 books of poetry and two books of criticism, including Present Tense, Sculpture, and Listening to Reading.