A masterful new collection by award-winning poet Russell Thornton.
In "Greek Fire," one of the poems in Russell Thornton's astonishing new
collection, the central image is of fire burning through water: "water
is a bridge / for a fire to come into the world." This image also
illuminates the driving force that animates the poems in Answer to
Blue. The stillness and quiet depth characteristic of Thornton's poetry
are here shot through with an irresistible vitality, a flame of mythic
resonance.
The past, both ancient and recent, exerts a gravitational pull
throughout the collection, with Greek myths, family histories and
biblical passages unearthed and examined, forgotten and returned to,
giving way in a cyclical rhythm to the transient presence of young
children and the death of a parent. With a clarity that pierces through
the mist of daily routine, Thornton gives attention to transitional
states, pausing at the often rushed-through moments of change, and also
examines the phenomenon of perception itself.
This collection's response to D.H. Lawrence's question--"Oh what in you
can answer to this blueness?"--is both an answer and a challenge, an
achievement of beauty that contains the seed of something more enduring
and sacred.
