Nicholas Christopher's fourth book of poems, In the Year of the Comet, more than lives up to Anthony Hecht's praise for his earlier works. "Christopher's work is not merely extraordinarily good, but seems altogether in a class by itself."
Indeed, with this collection Christopher provides us with a poetry that is rare today: demanding and deliberate, imbued with permanence and a profound gift for illuminating, with precise and shimmering language, elemental truths in ourselves and in the world around us.
The poems lead us through the relentless cycles of the universe: from the sun, smiling both on "the blue machinery of the sea" and the dictator's execution, to the moon -- not quite illuminating the "sea of night" where "all the windows are curtained"; from the constellations, those myriad pinpoints mimicked by dreams in the "vast solitude" of the mind, to the year of the comet where, in a moment's passing, "all of us -- like the blind -- can see everything/and be reminded that we know nothing."
Images resound powerfully and musically in these poems in ways that ech the work of William Carlos Willias and Robert Lowell. And, with an emotive force unrivaled by his contemporaries, Christopher has the extraordinary ability to create a moment as real as memory:
You can still see clearly the odd
details of her face: a green cloud
hovering in the left iris, a question-mark
star by the ear; and violet lips
mouthing the songs on the radio...
Lyrically poignant, direct and moving, In the Year of the Comet exhibits the beauty and accessibility that have made Nicholas Christopher one of the most original and accomplished poets in recent history.
"In such a poem as 'Through the Window of the All-Night Restaurant,'
Christopher posits a world essentially elusive and strange. It is fascinating
to see how other poems, in this strong new collection, attempt by various means
to possess and shape that recalcitrant reality -- by infusing it with a mood,
by discovering in it patterns of color or form, by perceiving some detail with
hallucinating clarity, by abducting the real into a dreamlike vision. Swift,
clear, and formally minimal, these poems give pleasure by the resourcefulness
and elan of their imaginative attack. I can think of no one who is quite like
Nicholas Christopher."
-Richard Wilbur
"Nicholas Christopher's poems are vibrant with light and the surprise
of
recognition. He shows us again and again the luminous nature of the
familiar."
-W.S. Merwin
"We look for two primary things in a poem: 1) vividness and excitement
of local detail, and 2) imaginative, dramatic, and surprising coherence. Nicholas
Christopher supplies these generously in poem after poem in his latest and
finest book, In the Year of the Comet. Everything here is luminous with
accuracy of sight and delicacy of insight. He must now rank among the very
best poets of his generation."
--Anthony Hecht
"Imagine, then, reading a volume of poems vibrant with light and the
surprise of recognition. Not only is this true for Nicholas Christopher's Desperate
Characters, but equally so in this new book."
--The Washington Post