1 comments about Telepathy.

1. Why does Johnston seem to prefer such images as sleep and telepathy? What is he attempting to get to? I really want him to be doing something big, that's why I am asking...
   
   I already have Alice Notley's "Disobedience" on the brain, so maybe I'm making comparisons between Notley and Johnston which simply don't hold, but I don't think so. The first line of Johnston's series-poem "Vacation" tells us that
   I had not minded distance, not
   traveling,
   and my gut reaction is to think that he's going to attempt to take the reader there, and I immediately began to think he was going to start talking not only about his past, but the past in a larger way. I knew he was going to begin to attempt something similar to what Notley is doing with the Lascaux image. Do I detect pre-lapsarian sentiment? I think I do, and I think he wants to say we have a past which is revealed by the poet, if he/she would only search for them, in other words, a place where
   words
   may cede their place for passages.
   since I myself am working on something in the way of a longer piece I now tend to critique how many writers I see lay something out, especially in a longer poem that is clearly segmented or has well-defined parts. I think that helps me decide what I would do when I see what another writer has done. But, I digress.
   Attempting as I am to look at his book as a whole(this may be in error), I get all the way to the end of "Telepathy" and get to the St. Denis portion - which to my mind could almost be its own poem, or a more present piece or proper part on its own. I wonder, is he attempting to ascribe a belief system to this quest for origins? The truth is that I think metaphysical poetry as in Donne, Herbert etc. is pretty dated. I want to see an example of someone who is taking the metaphysical poetry idea and making it modern - or even postmodern. The yearning we have to know our connection with the cosmos isn't gone, and so it is still quite valid to see that expressed - in my mind at least.
   
   I have unapologetically read into this book, it's only fair to tell you that, and then say - take that or leave it...
   Troy R. McGee, Jr.

No comments about Historical Catalogue of Printed Editions of the English Bible, 1525-1961.

No comments about Sparkling Splendours: The Art of Ancient Chinese Carving on Rock, Crystal and Agate (The Taoshi Zhai Collection).

No comments about Golden Age of English Manuscript Painting: 1200-1500.

1 comments about A Shaker Sister's Drawings: Wild Plants Illustrated by Cora Helena Sarle.

1. Maybe the Shakerês visions of the "spiritual world" shaped Sister Sarleês perception of the "natural world" and therefore influenced her nice, simple, stylized drawings. On stressing the straight stalks and the symmetry of every plant she captures the essence of each species. I like the a little bit naive-looking illustrations very much because of their honesty and purity. The plants are well-arranged on every page, with a certain economy of layout, which fits into the Shaker-philosophy. I think in some way Sister Helenaês spirit lives on in these prettily-drawn illustrations that can please both- flower lovers and botanists.

No comments about Robert Grieve: Paintings, Drawings & Collage.

No comments about The Etchings of Louis Icart.

No comments about Davenport's Art Reference and Price Guide, 1991-1992.

No comments about Currier's Price Guide to European Artists 1545- (Currier's Price Guide to European Artists at Auction).

No comments about The European Avant-Gardes: Art in France and Western Europe 1904-c.1945 (The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection).