Cathedral-Tree-Train and other poems
Richard Elman
72 pages perfectbound
$9.00
ISBN 1-881523-03-9
“Much of this book concerns a young painter’s suicide. In tender and angry
poems, Elman questions the reasons for this waste of life and talent. Like
an archaeologist he excavates his memories, examining them for clues to
understanding. That he does not, at last, understand seems the truest thing
in these poems.”
- Booklist
“Earnest, burly, elegant, passionate work. Elman is a serious character.
There are many good books of poems but there are very few that have a
cultural resonance. This is an important book, ‘a factory of
astonishments.’”
- David R. Slavitt
“Richard Elman’s long poem, “Cathedral-Tree-Train,” is not conventionally
poetic, but throughout its searching, melancholic length the heart of
poetry is here. An elegy, it is not so much against death as it is against
failures and solitudes, and all the unanswerable questions of our world.
Altogether, Cathedral-Tree-Train is fraught, extreme, brave, and
beautiful.”
- Mary Oliver