From the Contemporary Poetry Series #2
“Is person place or person,” writes Susan Gevirtz. This provocative statement—it is not a question—leads us through Thrall to the land of Intelexa and outlying realms. If Alice in Wonderland and Wallace Stevens have a daughter, here is her primary residence. She spends “each month the chapter of a year” “drinking of this aquarium water tincture and thereby knowing something happened. Thus reaching for the dictionary.” The Reader can hope to find herself in this Looking Glass, surrounded by the good neighbors Intellect, Lexicon, Law, and Light, opening into deep communication with sensitive and nervy maps of reading and response, a finely-tuned and attuned charting and exploration of the “world of written words.” There is no finer dwelling than this.
— Stacy Doris
Susan Gevirtz
Praise for Thrall
We could try to find an answer to the first sentence of Thrall, “is person place or person,” if we were sure it’s a question. But I take the book as an enigma, its key word never spoken. Even the guess coming nearest might well land us in “deciphretude,” not a healthy sounding state. Best no doubt to leave all the words as they are and, well… just listen. It’s a beautiful book.
— Keith Waldrop
