Mercurochrome: New Poems.

Santa Rosa, CA Black Sparrow Books, 2001. Hardcover Limited Edition (2001): 1 of 300 Trade Hardcover copies, unnumbered. Limited Edition (2001): 1 of 300 Trade Hardcover copies, unnumbered. Near Fine in Near Fine Clear Vinyl DJ: Both book and DJ show only minute indications of use. The Book shows just a hint of shelving wear to the lower extremities; a couple of barely discernible smudges to outside edges of the text block; the binding is square and secure; the text is clean. Free of creased or dog-eared pages in the text. Free of any underlining, hi-lighting or marginalia or marks in the text. Free of ownership names, dates, addresses, notations, inscriptions, stamps, or labels. A handsome very nearly-new copy, structurally sound and tightly bound, showing the mildest wear a a couple of barely discernible cosmetic imperfections. Bright and Clean. Corners sharp. Very close to 'As New'. The clear vinyl DJ shows some very mild rubbing; else flawless. very close to 'As New'. NOT a Remainder, Book-Club, or Ex-Library. copy. 8vo. (9.25 x 6.25 x 1.15 inches). 270 pages. Language: English. Weight: 19 ounces. Quarter-cloth Decorated boards with multi-colored titles and designs at the front panel and black titles on a multi-colored paste-down strip at the backstrip. Hardback: Pictorial Paper on Boards, with clear protective DJ. Ms. Coleman's powerful collection MERCUROCHROME was nominated for the National Book Award in poetry. Her last collection of poetry, BATHWATER WINE (Black Sparrow, 1998) won the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and her memoir LOVE-INS WITH NIETZSCHE (Wake Up Heavy, 2000) was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. It seems the literary world is standing up and taking note of one of our eminent modern poets. Keep you dictionary close by, or a Wikipedia page up- hardly a poem went by that I didn't have to look something up or Google an arcane reference. But I think it's worth it. It's too vague a description perhaps but I love the rhythm of Coleman's poems, the way they flow down a page. Granted, you don't always know what you just "flowed" out of or into. She has this way, as do many poets, of saying something beautifully unintelligible; I frequently had the idea of a tapping her foot impatiently while a child completed a task, the task in this case being the deciphering of what was being said in the poem. But again- generally worth it. Poems like "south central los angeles deathtrip 1982", a series of vignettes about police brutality and corruption, and "amnesia fugue" are long, passionate, poems full of terrific imagery.