Nelson & the Huruburu Bird

Rating:
Summary: a masterpiece of modulation
Review: I read these poems and said yes; yes, there's a brightness, yes, there's a resonant voice, yes, the varied conceptualizations are ingenious, yes, I saw, yes, I touched, yes, it remains. I think there'll be volumes more; Flo-Jo blown into motion.
This volatile stuff is chameleon poetry, dazzling all the cosmic accesories, of verdant verbiage, with wit; the book shook. Read the poetry that's been lived in, its running commentary, investigation, controlled mutation, labor-exploratory station, mad scientist jones.
It's an inventor's notebook, a painter's mannered design, a scholar's close angle, the aviator's dashing plan; blueprints, I mean, of a perspective, the scene. The long poem "The Pillar" stands as a remarkable treatment of the form, its possibilities, near-infinitessimal variation wobble. I bogus U knot...just trust me, if you want to write, join the debate, or read to enlightenment, look for as many vehicles of language as you might conceivably sample, maybe, all the way to customary usage.
Although, the book is something a bit unconventional; dare I say, revolutionary? We see that there's fuel in the underground, storage tanks, sloshing rare brews, blot tests. Where else can you catch sight of the bashful huruburu bird, or, see speedwellbuttercup under the monkey-puzzle tree? Don't you tempt me. I say, raise the cup, pour the libations to poor poetry, vowing a helix of laurels, for another, another day. Find out today, enter, lights on, reaction. Of course, I said yes.

Rating:
Summary: Stellar!
Review: This book is destined, I think, to be considered one of the most important poetry books of the 21st Century in both Ireland and American. I'm not joking. This poet writes as well as -- and often better than -- Plath, Patrick Kavanagh, Bishop, Lorine Niedecker, and Ashbery. These are all very different writers, obviously -- which is in part to say that this writer and the poems in this book are so versatile and disparate in form, content, and style that I am nonplussed and frankly awed by this poet's versatility; her conceptual, lyrical, and narrative gifts are so stellar and strange that I have trouble thinking of Mairéad Byrne as one person.

It is a long first book (128 pages) that reads like a "Selected" volume. The book is divided into three sections: 1. "From _An Interview with Romulus and Remus_"; 2."From _Cycling to Marino_"; 3. "From _The Pillar_" -- which makes me think it is three books in one. The credits and acknowledgements pages are extensive: she's published widely in both Ireland and America, in both countries' best journals. She's been widely anthologized in both Ireland and America.

I see that Wild Honey Press is a new Irish press and that this is its first full length book. And, too, I can see why the press chose to inaugurate or christen its full length publications with this book: this book is absolutely stupendous-and this poet is a major Irish poet; what's more, Mairéad Byrne is a major Irish poet writing as an immigrant in America, writing thus from and in two traditions, in two countries, taking on, getting from, and contributing to the American poetry milieu in ways that I have not seen, and do not expect to see, American authors doing.