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Ricardo Sternberg's astonishing third collection brings together poems both lyrical and complex, transparent and resonant.
Two Wings: She would drift into the kitchen trailing fragments of a hymn that spoke of God, a river, the pair of golden wings that would be hers on Judgement Day and were you to look at her then you might well decide your best bet for a meal would be to eat out: she was blind and appeared a little lost in her tile and linoleum kingdom. But she vaguely addressed the garlic, the onion, the tomato and between her hands rubbed a sprig of rosemary over olive oil. A fragrance then arose and you decided you had best sit down. And you did. Did you fall asleep? Did you dream? You awoke to the smart snap of sails: the billowing of a tablecloth. She returned and a generous bowl was placed in front of you. Then she crossed her arms and waited: her prayer done, your eating was its Amen.
If Map of Dreams ended with the poet unable to reach his dreamt island, here he returns to the world around him and finds it full: a blind cook clattering in her kitchen, a great-uncle raising birds behind locked doors, lovers writing to each other out of touch and out of synch. He sees as well a world riven by magic: Noah's wife and her tears, a broom yearning for a dance, an angel inventing the blues. Like the mime in "Marcel," Bamboo Church sets a lavish table "in the house of the hungry."
If Map of Dreams ended with the poet unable to reach his dreamt island, here he returns to the world around him and finds it full: a blind cook clattering in her kitchen, a great-uncle raising birds behind locked doors, lovers writing to each other out of touch and out of synch. He sees as well a world riven by magic: Noah's wife and her tears, a broom yearning for a dance, an angel inventing the blues. Like the mime in "Marcel," Bamboo Church sets a lavish table "in the house of the hungry."
Details
Part of the Hugh MacLennan Poetry Series (number 13 in series)
76 Pages, 5 x 7
ISBN 9780773525665
April 2003
Formats: Paperback
"Sternberg is fantastic in strict forms when he slides between buttoned-up and more conversational registers. "Blue Letters" is an epistle to an ex-lover who harbours some serious grievances. It's written in short-lined couplets of perfect rhyme and uses wrapped sentences to great effect; maintaining a tone of intimacy while allowing the reader their due enjoyment on finding themselves privy to such information." Books in Canada
"Sternberg sets in motion a most remarkable array of agents: birds, brujos, quarks, carrots, and Cyril of Thessalonika ... among them lovers who trapeze through a poetry of formal concentration and assuredness. Bamboo Church is a wonderful collection; full of play, and energy, and delight, it draws together under one roof satire that has tang, argument that is sinuous and subversive, and stories both open and true." Robert Finley, author of The Accidental Indies
"Sternberg's poems inhabit that rare place where metaphors dissolve, where dream makes a tablecloth into a sail and a beating heart becomes two diverging roads where the traveller doesn't choose but takes both. When it appears that he may concede and fall back on comparison as ornament or illustration, as in much contemporary poetry, the comparison becomes an undebatable fact of the poem. So adamant is Sternberg about maintaining the truth of comparison and the falsehood of frivolous metaphor that he brutalizes universal cliches with a profound humour: a camel is cast out of heaven for failing the needle test, an angel joins the circus, an ant becomes a farmer then a tractor - not as a comparison but as a fact. What a delight to watch these compassionate comedies deconstruct a figure of speech into speech itself, to know that magic still lives beyond the realm of lies." Greg Keeler, author of six collections of poetry, received Montana's Governor's Award in the Humanities in 2001
"Bamboo Church is a celebration of the sacred and sensual things of this earth. Able to write on almost any subject from thumbs to ants and Spinoza, Sternberg writes with humor and grace, both exiled and at home in the world of language." Rosemary Sullivan, author of Labyrinth of Desire: Women, Passion and Romantic Obsession
"Sternberg's playful and yet purposeful contemplations are remarkably sweeping, and lovers of the form will thrill to both the variety and the depth that graces this work." The Boox Review
"These poems celebrate mind and body, sacred and profane, with an urbane and infectious enthusiasm. Here are poems for all tastes. The love poems can be unabashedly erotic ("Pleasure") or wittily detached ("Supply=Demand," based on the imagery of traditional economics)." Canadian Book Review
"Ricardo Sternberg's poems offer pleasure, not embarrassment. His forms are elegant: he loves three and four line stanza and even writes a sestina. He is not stiff or banal like some of the contemporary formalists: like the trapeze artist in one of his love poems, he makes the work appear effortless. He's s a master of the love lyric. The extravangance (as in the root meaning, " wandering about " ) of his imagination is superb without straying into whimsy. He has a poem about an angel who joins the Moscow Circus, and he has written interesting poems about such unusual subjects as quarks or a millionaire who sneaks into heaven disguised as a camel." Montreal Review of Books
"This varied collection contains beautifully crafted poems in which characters step from the ordinary to the supernatural, and humorous yarns that parody myth with boldness and subtlety. Sternberg infuses his verse with original imagery that charms the reader and inspires wonder, elevating the commonplace to the magical. Carrots nail down fields, a lettuce leaf becomes the shroud of an expired mouse, a broom whispers from the closet to be let out to dance. Despite these whimsical qualities, and Sternberg's predilection for the comic, this is serious poetry. It reminds us that laughter and pleasure are also serious." Globe and Mail
"Sternberg sets in motion a most remarkable array of agents: birds, brujos, quarks, carrots, and Cyril of Thessalonika ... among them lovers who trapeze through a poetry of formal concentration and assuredness. Bamboo Church is a wonderful collection; full of play, and energy, and delight, it draws together under one roof satire that has tang, argument that is sinuous and subversive, and stories both open and true." Robert Finley, author of The Accidental Indies
"Sternberg's poems inhabit that rare place where metaphors dissolve, where dream makes a tablecloth into a sail and a beating heart becomes two diverging roads where the traveller doesn't choose but takes both. When it appears that he may concede and fall back on comparison as ornament or illustration, as in much contemporary poetry, the comparison becomes an undebatable fact of the poem. So adamant is Sternberg about maintaining the truth of comparison and the falsehood of frivolous metaphor that he brutalizes universal cliches with a profound humour: a camel is cast out of heaven for failing the needle test, an angel joins the circus, an ant becomes a farmer then a tractor - not as a comparison but as a fact. What a delight to watch these compassionate comedies deconstruct a figure of speech into speech itself, to know that magic still lives beyond the realm of lies." Greg Keeler, author of six collections of poetry, received Montana's Governor's Award in the Humanities in 2001
"Bamboo Church is a celebration of the sacred and sensual things of this earth. Able to write on almost any subject from thumbs to ants and Spinoza, Sternberg writes with humor and grace, both exiled and at home in the world of language." Rosemary Sullivan, author of Labyrinth of Desire: Women, Passion and Romantic Obsession
"Sternberg's playful and yet purposeful contemplations are remarkably sweeping, and lovers of the form will thrill to both the variety and the depth that graces this work." The Boox Review
"These poems celebrate mind and body, sacred and profane, with an urbane and infectious enthusiasm. Here are poems for all tastes. The love poems can be unabashedly erotic ("Pleasure") or wittily detached ("Supply=Demand," based on the imagery of traditional economics)." Canadian Book Review
"Ricardo Sternberg's poems offer pleasure, not embarrassment. His forms are elegant: he loves three and four line stanza and even writes a sestina. He is not stiff or banal like some of the contemporary formalists: like the trapeze artist in one of his love poems, he makes the work appear effortless. He's s a master of the love lyric. The extravangance (as in the root meaning, " wandering about " ) of his imagination is superb without straying into whimsy. He has a poem about an angel who joins the Moscow Circus, and he has written interesting poems about such unusual subjects as quarks or a millionaire who sneaks into heaven disguised as a camel." Montreal Review of Books
"This varied collection contains beautifully crafted poems in which characters step from the ordinary to the supernatural, and humorous yarns that parody myth with boldness and subtlety. Sternberg infuses his verse with original imagery that charms the reader and inspires wonder, elevating the commonplace to the magical. Carrots nail down fields, a lettuce leaf becomes the shroud of an expired mouse, a broom whispers from the closet to be let out to dance. Despite these whimsical qualities, and Sternberg's predilection for the comic, this is serious poetry. It reminds us that laughter and pleasure are also serious." Globe and Mail
Ricardo Sternberg was born in Brazil and now lives in Toronto. He teaches Brazilian and Portuguese literature at the University of Toronto and is the author of The Invention of Honey and Map of Dreams.
Winner
AIGA Design Prize
American Institute of Graphic Arts (2004)
AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers Award. Cover design by Salamander Hill.
AIGA Design Prize
American Institute of Graphic Arts (2004)
AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers Award. Cover design by Salamander Hill.
