Splay Anthem

Name: Splay Anthem
Brand: Wiley
Price: 27.75 AUD
Availability: BackOrder

By: Nathaniel Mackey

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Paperback | 8 January 2010 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
112 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.29 x 1.55 x 0.13

Paperback

RRP $27.95

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In a stunning new collection of poems of transport and transcendence, African-American poet Nathaniel Mackey's "asthmatic song of aspiration" scuttles across cultures and historiesâ"from America to Andaluca, from Ethiopia to Viennaâ"in a sexy, beautiful adaptive dance.

Part antiphonal rant, part rhythmic whisper, Nathaniel Mackey's new collection of poems, Splay Anthem, takes the reader to uncharted poetic spaces. Divided into three sectionsâ""Braid," "Fray," and "Nub" (one referent Mackey notes in his stellar Introduction: "the imperial, flailing republic of Nub the United States has become, the shrunken place the earth has become, planet Nub")â"Splay Anthem weaves together two ongoing serial poems Mackey has been writing for over twenty years, Song of the Andoumboulou and "Mu" (though "mu no more itself / than Andoumboulou").

In the cosmology of the Dogon of West Africa, the Andoumboulou are progenitor spirits, and the song of the Andoumboulou is a song addressed to the spirits, a funeral song, a song of rebirth. "Mu," too, splays with meaning: muni bird, Greek muthos, a Sun Ra tune, a continent once thought to have existed in the Pacific. With the vibrancy of a Mir³ painting, Mackey's poems trace the lost tribe of "we" through waking and dreamtime, through a multitude of geographies, cultures, histories, and musical traditions, as poetry here serves as the intersection of everything, myth's music, spirit lift.

Industry Reviews

"... a mesmerizing unfolding of language as mus(e)ical thinking." -- The Believer
"Mackey's writing rewards close reading with resonances of real experience." -- The Village Voice
"Mackey's rampant alliteration and his reconfiguration of words on the phonemic and morphemic level create a sonic atmosphere that enacts a state of jazz." -- Boston Review
"Mackey is a sure and skilled and authoritative composer / compositor...The workings of his words indicate an uncontestable care and loving respect for the most subtle and resonant nuances of language." -- African American Review

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