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Sun & Urn
Poems
by Christopher Salerno
This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Pub Date
Feb 15 2017
| Archive Date
Dec 01 2016
Description
Christopher Salerno’s fourth collection of poems, Sun & Urn, is a book made from the wild stuff of grief and loss. Readers will find in these lyric poems a peculiar force pushing beyond the obvious. Sad, tender, whimsical, this book mines the poet’s personal journey through grief for a universal look at how we as human beings handle our greatest losses. Coursing through this work is the clarity of vulnerability. With an idiosyncratic and inquisitive lyricism, Sun & Urn examines, repositions, and makes art from the odd scraps left over after a father’s sudden death, from infertility and divorce, and from the hope of new love.
Christopher Salerno’s fourth collection of poems, Sun & Urn, is a book made from the wild stuff of grief and loss. Readers will find in these lyric poems a peculiar force pushing beyond the obvious...
Description
Christopher Salerno’s fourth collection of poems, Sun & Urn, is a book made from the wild stuff of grief and loss. Readers will find in these lyric poems a peculiar force pushing beyond the obvious. Sad, tender, whimsical, this book mines the poet’s personal journey through grief for a universal look at how we as human beings handle our greatest losses. Coursing through this work is the clarity of vulnerability. With an idiosyncratic and inquisitive lyricism, Sun & Urn examines, repositions, and makes art from the odd scraps left over after a father’s sudden death, from infertility and divorce, and from the hope of new love.
A Note From the Publisher
Winner of the Georgia Poetry Prize, Selected by Thomas Lux. Christopher Salerno resides in Caldwell, New Jersey, where he serves as associate professor in the creative writing and MFA programs at William Paterson University.
Winner of the Georgia Poetry Prize, Selected by Thomas Lux. Christopher Salerno resides in Caldwell, New Jersey, where he serves as associate professor in the creative writing and MFA programs at...
A Note From the Publisher
Winner of the Georgia Poetry Prize, Selected by Thomas Lux. Christopher Salerno resides in Caldwell, New Jersey, where he serves as associate professor in the creative writing and MFA programs at William Paterson University.
Advance Praise
“If a poet ends a poem early in a book with, ‘And
always a hellhound be,’ I keep reading. If, several poems later, a
speaker is burning his deceased father’s toupee in the yard, I keep
reading—harder, closer. Christopher Salerno’s Sun & Urn is a
highly accomplished (he has learned his trade!), a madly imaginative,
and, ultimately, a brilliant and deeply human book. Read it, please,
thrice!”
—Thomas Lux
“If a poet ends a poem early in a book with, ‘And always a hellhound be,’ I keep reading. If, several poems later, a speaker is burning his deceased father’s toupee in the yard, I keep...
Advance Praise
“If a poet ends a poem early in a book with, ‘And
always a hellhound be,’ I keep reading. If, several poems later, a
speaker is burning his deceased father’s toupee in the yard, I keep
reading—harder, closer. Christopher Salerno’s Sun & Urn is a
highly accomplished (he has learned his trade!), a madly imaginative,
and, ultimately, a brilliant and deeply human book. Read it, please,
thrice!”
—Thomas Lux
Available Editions
| EDITION |
Other Format |
| ISBN |
9780820350493 |
| PRICE |
$19.95 (USD)
|
Additional Information
Available Editions
| EDITION |
Other Format |
| ISBN |
9780820350493 |
| PRICE |
$19.95 (USD)
|
Average rating from 12 members
Featured Reviews
Marzie K, Reviewer
I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for a fair review.
4.5 Stars
While not facile, Salerno's poetry echoes with the death of his father and the odd minutia following that loss and those from other relationships. But there is also the breath of hope for new growth. While some of his writing feels almost jarring (by intent, I'm sure), other poems are achingly powerful.
"You can have the opposite
of amnesia
and what
that is
is grief."
Joseph S, Reviewer
And always a hellhound be
Sun & Urn by Christopher Salerno is the winner of the Georgia Poetry Prize. Salerno resides in Caldwell, New Jersey, where he serves as associate professor in the creative writing and MFA programs at William Paterson University. He received his MA from East Carolina University and his MFA from Bennington College in Vermont.
Sun & Urn explores and expresses grief and manages to capture the healing side of nature. There is something profound bout the death of a loved one. Near the beginning of the collection, the poet describes the bus ride, carrying his father’s ashes, to the race track. The ashes are spread at the starting line. One wonders about the father. Gambler? The stereotypical heavy drinker trying to make it rich? The poet, also, speaks of his medications and getting off them comparing it to a factory reset for his mind.
Nature takes on the role of beauty in the poems:
call on nature trees maple and oak.
I go to the window
Where the laws of nature
Are sometimes writ
On leaves like love letters
Floating up, star-deep
Into all black holes
Nature takes on an aura of goodness that counters grief. Both nature and art add to the experience of life and give it meaning.
Not all departing is yearning. As the reader continues, one sees the dual source of grief. His father is gone. The poet himself is childless and divorced. The sense of loneliness runs deep much like the earlier mentioned black hole. He also recognizes that the loss of his father is also a call to his own mortality. His discussions move from jeans and soda to:
our eyes still function
with prescription. But clearness of purpose is no guarantee of coming to
any surface.
Transitions in life bring the realization that grief is part of life. Salerno, also, reminds us that grief is the opposite of amnesia. Remembering is part of life. It’s what we remember of the person. The possessions left behind mean little (even if they are little) compared to the life and the hole that exists afterward. Salerno shows that grief is more than depression. It can be a learning and growing experience. It is part of the cycle of life and something we can grow from. A moving and memorable collection of poems dealing with grief, getting older, and still, somehow seeing the pureness of nature.
Featured Reviews
Marzie K, Reviewer
I received this book from Net Galley in exchange for a fair review.
4.5 Stars
While not facile, Salerno's poetry echoes with the death of his father and the odd minutia following that loss and those from other relationships. But there is also the breath of hope for new growth. While some of his writing feels almost jarring (by intent, I'm sure), other poems are achingly powerful.
"You can have the opposite
of amnesia
and what
that is
is grief."
Joseph S, Reviewer
And always a hellhound be
Sun & Urn by Christopher Salerno is the winner of the Georgia Poetry Prize. Salerno resides in Caldwell, New Jersey, where he serves as associate professor in the creative writing and MFA programs at William Paterson University. He received his MA from East Carolina University and his MFA from Bennington College in Vermont.
Sun & Urn explores and expresses grief and manages to capture the healing side of nature. There is something profound bout the death of a loved one. Near the beginning of the collection, the poet describes the bus ride, carrying his father’s ashes, to the race track. The ashes are spread at the starting line. One wonders about the father. Gambler? The stereotypical heavy drinker trying to make it rich? The poet, also, speaks of his medications and getting off them comparing it to a factory reset for his mind.
Nature takes on the role of beauty in the poems:
call on nature trees maple and oak.
I go to the window
Where the laws of nature
Are sometimes writ
On leaves like love letters
Floating up, star-deep
Into all black holes
Nature takes on an aura of goodness that counters grief. Both nature and art add to the experience of life and give it meaning.
Not all departing is yearning. As the reader continues, one sees the dual source of grief. His father is gone. The poet himself is childless and divorced. The sense of loneliness runs deep much like the earlier mentioned black hole. He also recognizes that the loss of his father is also a call to his own mortality. His discussions move from jeans and soda to:
our eyes still function
with prescription. But clearness of purpose is no guarantee of coming to
any surface.
Transitions in life bring the realization that grief is part of life. Salerno, also, reminds us that grief is the opposite of amnesia. Remembering is part of life. It’s what we remember of the person. The possessions left behind mean little (even if they are little) compared to the life and the hole that exists afterward. Salerno shows that grief is more than depression. It can be a learning and growing experience. It is part of the cycle of life and something we can grow from. A moving and memorable collection of poems dealing with grief, getting older, and still, somehow seeing the pureness of nature.
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