LSU Paperback Original
Thomas Reiter’s Catchment abounds with stories
brought to life. From memory, myth, and imagination comes
a faith in the power of poetry to bear witness. Here we find
a variety of personae engaged in dutiful labor ranging from
gardening to tomb repair. The lore of occupations centers
these narratives and dramatic lyrics, and the texts range
widely in time and place, with settings in the Caribbean islands,
with their colonial and postcolonial realities, their multiform
history, culture, and topography; the Midwest of the pioneer
era as well as of the poet’s own childhood; and the
New Jersey Pine Barrens.
These poems, inclusive of so many perspectives and voices,
enter wide sweeps and strong currents of history, not to generalize
or point a moral but rather to render moments in the lives
of people caught in the effects of time’s passing. Reiter
is drawn to portray those who hold their lives together in
spite of adversity, even calamity, who simply—profoundly—go
on. Passionate, authoritative in tone and detail, Catchment
embodies a vision in which art comes out of a necessity
to repair the world.
Thomas Reiter is the author of ten collections
of poetry, including Powers
and Boundaries and Pearly
Everlasting. He has given readings and poetry workshops
widely, mainly in this country but also in the West Indies
and in Wales. His awards include an Academy of American Poets
Prize, the Daily News Poetry Prize from the Caribbean Writer,
and poetry fellowships from the NEA and the New Jersey State
Council on the Arts. |
