Nathaniel Mackey

Most people are quite predictable. Creatures of habit, repeating repetitive ideas of normality, scared to step outside of the box they have labeled themselves. Most of us, are comfortable with our limitations and comforted by them.

Reading a great book of poetry is meeting the person who pushes each day outside of the realm of yesterday. While most of us awake each day to the resemblence of yesterday, the daring search for opportunities to change.

In Nathaniel Mackey's Splay Anthem, I found show more my daring companion. (Oh faithful is the poet who knows he can whisper louder than he screams.)

Splay Anthem is an experience within two ongoing serial poems Song of the Andoumboulou and "Mu". Mackey's binary star is a beautiful fusion of the the griot's message with the griot's drum. Rhythm and alliteration.

Makey's collection is the patriach, esteemed professor of community elder who who tells his stories two to five pages at a time. There is so much bound to each page, that one must study for weeks before returning to hear the same two paged story again, with new understanding.

Mackey, I want to know why the Moor sighs and inevitably why the Andoumboulou sings. I want to meet the people of Nub, and ask if they know where they are? Can I hear Nazakat and Salamat? Can I see Sekmet?

And so I return to Splay Anthem with questions. I recieve answers to some, others I must wait for. I am moved by the rhythm but not comforted by it. The rhythm jolts me out of my comfort zone. I am forced to read, reread and reexamine. Enjoyment is no longer an idle excercize. show less

Paracritical Hinge: Essay, Talks, Notes, Interviews by Nathaniel Mackey Mackey is an American poet, novelist, anthologist, literary critic, and editor. He is the Reynolds Price Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University and a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. Mackey is currently teaching a poetry workshop at Duke University. He has been editor and publisher of Hambone since 1982 and he won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2006. In 2014, he was awarded the Ruth Lilly show more Poetry Prize, and in 2015 he won Yale's Bollingen Prize for American Poetry.

Paracritical Hinge refers to the pivotal point of the combination of poetry, fiction, and art. Mackey examines several subjects including an interesting examination of phenology, the poetry of the Vietnam War, and jazz. He also discusses writers and arts in his work like Amiri Baraka and John Coltrane.

This is clearly a work for those familiar with Mackey and his work. The reading is not easy especially for one whose field of study and interest are not strongly connected to Mackey's. The writing in the body of the work is complex with plenty of names and themes that are understood to be known. I had to skip through the introduction because it was over my head. I found it a little odd that I could follow along in sections where I had an understanding of the subject matter but was lost in the introduction that was supposed to introduce the subject and ease me into it. A difficult but rewarding work that clearly is not for everyone. show less

This book is consistently blowing me away.