| Gabriel Levins new collection breaks new ground in its formal experimentation as well as in its exploration of remote corners of the Mediterranean. The long title poem is written from the multiple perspectives of the personages in Courbets large painting The Artists Studio. Courbets realism blends with ancient eastern mythologies, including the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which gives the collection its title. In another long poem, Balthazars Field, the poet walks the length and breadth of Patmos, seeking out the hidden and the heterogeneous: the cave of St John, a Greek priestesss inscription carved on a stone, the rock rose / nestled in its alms of soil. The book concludes with an extended meditation on modern music (cored marvels of pitch) written in homage to the composer Alexander Goehr. |
