In his most expansive and unruly collection to date, the acclaimed poet
Charles Bernstein gathers poems, both tiny and grand, that speak to a
world turned upside down. Our time of "covidity," as Bernstein calls it
in one of the book's most poignantly disarming works, is characterized
in equal measure by the turbulence of both the body politic and the
individual. Likewise, in Topsy-Turvy, novel and traditional forms
jostle against one another: horoscopes, shanties, and elegies rub up
against gags, pastorals, and feints; translations, songs, screenplays,
and slapstick tangle deftly with commentaries, conundrums, psalms, and
prayers.
Though Bernstein's poems play with form, they incorporate a melancholy,
even tragic, sensibility. This "cognitive dissidence," as Bernstein
calls it, is reflected in a lyrically explosive mix of pathos, comedy,
and wit, though the reader is kept guessing which is which at almost
every turn. Topsy-Turvy includes an ode to the New York City subway
and a memorial for Harpers Ferry hero Shields Green, along with
collaborations with artists Amy Sillman and Richard Tuttle. This
collection is also full of other voices: Pessoa, Geeshie Wiley,
Friedrich Rückert, and Rimbaud; Carlos Drummond, Virgil, and Brian
Ferneyhough; and even Caudio Amberian, an imaginary first-century
aphorist.
Bernstein didn't set out to write a book about the pandemic, but these
poems, performances, and translations are oddly prescient, marking a
path through dark times with a politically engaged form of aesthetic
resistance: We must "Continue / on, as / before, as / after."
The audio version of Topsy-Turvy is performed by the author.
