ustxtxb_obs_1982_08_20_50_00022-00000_000.pdf

Nye thing new. “There’s a lot to do here: walk, watch, breathe,” she says in “One Island” simple things, yes, but nothing which blocks an open view. Here she finds a way of being. Besides the lines quoted from these travel poems, attention should be given to “The Indian Shirt From Ayacucho, Peru,” “Sleeping In A Cave,” and “Making A Fist.” These are characteristic achievements of the poet’s weaving of anecdote, imagery, and epiphany. Such poems are immediately accessible they want to be read, they are written to be read yet they yield rich subtleties upon rereading. This is true of all poetry which lives, and is evident in “First Things Last” a poem seen through the eyes of early childhood \(from the third, seems like a poem about the child and is becomes also a sad and compas sionate portrait of the poet’s mother: Mama would enter the room, hand to her ear. Something she had forgotten, the name of a town, a friend she wanted to call. Landscapes swirled out from her fingertips, but this was the Midwest, hopelessly flat and dry. Her mother is a painter, landlocked in Missouri \(where the poet was born in the mail.” And her father, a writer and newspaper editor, looks on, while in his “voice, a ship was pulling out from port.” I wanted to tell them about the double boiler, but this was before speech. The way its sacred layers stacked together and fit, in the cupboard in the corner, by the mop and the broom. What matters, what is primary, is some times never known by others, and may take 30 years to express, looking back over the shoulder of one’s life. “The kitchen cupboard was my shrine” is the opening line of “First Things Last,” and it is in that shrine, and through its “sacred layers” that the poet recalls this luminous scene. Six of these last 21 poems are works of art, while others interesting in parts are not. It says nothing to say that a book is “uneven” for how could it be otherwise, even to the poet? Still, a more cohesive book might have been carved out of this collection say 35 poems instead of the 51 it contains and also a clearer idea of its last section. Hugging the Jukebox is a mature and ambitious performance, but it lacks the inevitable form-unto-itself which great books of poetry become. It is, however, an ad vance over her other fine book, Different Ways to Pray \(1980, Breitenbush Publi surer sense of form and wholeness. The earlier book, which won the poetry award of the Texas Institute of Letters, joins three chapbooks 131 poems between covers since 1976 in what is an impressive output of high quality from a poet of 30. Until Naomi Shihab Nye won one of the various prizes in the National Poetry Series, her work had been pub lished exclusively by independent im prints. It is fitting that her best book should gain such national attention, be cause she is a poet who knows her roots From Other Windows”: I keep feeling we’re going farther than we’re going, a journey that started in the deep inkwell out of which all our days are written. Nothing is said to indicate a monument, yet I perch on the edge of some new light. 0 Robert Bonazzi is a poet whose books include Living the Borrowed Life, Fictive Music, and Perpetual Texts. His independent imprint, Latitudes Press, has published over 20 titles. DIALOGUE 0. Fundamentalist Tentmakers Terry Pringle’s article, “In The Hands of an Angry God; is the best thing I have read in The Texas Observer. Even though he did not compare Jerry Falwell with the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, there is certainly no doubt that those two fundamentalists share the same mindset. I have noticed that when I quote the Bible to a fundamentalist, I somehow have MY passage ‘out of context’ or worse still, I am in the ‘wrong’ translation. But, Terry Pringle has stated the case as succinctly as can be done . . . the fundamentalist adores a wrathful, jealous hearted, mean, petty-minded killer God and takes great pleasure in making sure that HIS will is carried out to the minutest murder. Nevertheless, even though the fundamentalist adores such a primitive concept, I notice they want THEIR surroundings to be draped in extravagant luxury with the most modern trappings. No tentmaking or even tents for them! And the heaviest cross they bear is trying to get all those cheats off welfare so that money can go for more modern weapons of destruction. May God save us from the weapons of hate embraced by the fundamentalists! Dolores Pevehouse Interesting Texas As a contribution to the growing literature around the question of the nonexistence of a Texas Literature, I submit the following. First, maybe Texas is more interesting than “Literature.” Literature’s been done before; Texas is only in its infancy. Second: we Texans have produced more writing of note than Nebraska, Idaho, Iowa, Alabama, and Maine and maybe Nevada combined so what are we so antsy about? What do these serious folks mean by “literature?” Mostly serious fiction. If “literature” means “making it” with established literary circles or being taken seriously by academics, well maybe such ambitious types should take my first point seriously. Texas is more interesting than that kind of literary ambition. Why fiction? Because it is the most respected or prestigious writing form today. Yet it doesn’t necessarily follow that best art always takes place in the most respected form of the day. The opposite is often true. The movie classics were made when movies were popular entertainment. The novels of Dickens and others were published in newspaper supplements and reached their lengths to sell papers, somewhat like today’s TV soaps. Something happens to an art form when it becomes The Established Art Form in which to succeed. It’s usually the kiss of death. Maurice Schmidt, 330 W. Henrietta, Kingsville, Tx. 78363 Campaign Finance Every election year, the dependence on a few wealthy individuals and special interest political action committees becomes a greater problem in Texas political campaigns. The notion of representative democracy is rapidly fading from our political life. Common Cause believes 1982 should be the year the frustration of candidates, contributors, and the general public culminates in genuine outrage. Meaningful reform in the area of campaign finance is a major goal of Common Cause as we move toward the 22 AUGUST 20, 1982