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James Richardson
VECTORS |
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ISBN 1-9672668-9-0 (paper) $14.00
ISBN 1-9672668-8-2 (cloth) $24.00 2001. 120 pages Purchase from Copper Canyon Press Catalog |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR | SELECTED POEMS | VIEW CART REVIEWS & COMMENTS “James Richardson’s Vectors is a book of subversive wonders. Stunningly precise, these brilliant aphorisms and ten-second essays show a mind assessing, reassessing, discovering, and interrogating assumptions in ways that feel diamond-sharp, at once good-natured, quietly sly at times, and always, always, very shrewd. 'It can never be satisfied, the mind, never,' wrote Wallace Stevens. Vectors is a remarkable testament to such questing, vivid minding, as these aphorisms alight on everything from the nature of perception, to God, success, fear, shame, self-consciousness, love and friendship. 'There is no virgin past. The mind is like one of those floating islands of vegetation whose roots grasp not the earth but each other,' he writes. And: 'As hard as other people are to talk to, I’m glad I don’t have to sit next to myself.' And: 'Let me have my dreams, but not what I dream of.' Such incisive expressions remind us why Pascal believed so passionately that aphorisms have a particularly uncanny way of engraving themselves so deeply in our memory. Vectors enters the tradition carried forth by Pascal, Blake, Stevens, Antonio Porchia, and even Emily Dickinson, whose epigrammatic statements arise so vividly from her poems. Page after page there is the exciting sense of something hidden and true coming to light, bringing with it a sense of delighted recognition and discovery for the reader, and articulated in a way that has never quite been done before. I can think of no deeper pleasure a work can bring. From the time Hippocrates coined the term ‘aphorism’ and published his first one, 'Life is short, Art long,' this is an art form that has periodically renewed itself with astonishing results. Vectors can now be added to the short list of such works that will truly last” —Laurie Sheck “Not since the appearance of W. S. Merwin’s translations and adaptations of aphorisms in Asian Figures, some thirty years ago, has an American poet managed to put down so much delightful and compelling wisdom.” —Daryl Scroggins, American Literary Review “James Richardson’s Vectors… penetrates to the very heart of human nature. I stand looking in the mirror, alert to my own foibles, shaking my head as I tolerate what I know he knows about who I am.” —Judith Kitchen, The Georgia Review "For about 14 bucks you can buy yourself a literary ticket on any one of several satiating safaris, so why invest in these aphorisms? If only because a collection of aphorisms makes an excellent bathroom book for a sophisticated reader such as yourself, I implore you to give one of these a try. Once you crack the cover, you will find beauty and truth and even a smattering of goodness." —Patrick Madden, Project Muse “Almost every entry… introduces a new insight, provides a revelation, supplies a surprise… it is a book one wants to spend time with, a wonderfully friendly book, generous, witty and entertaining.” —Michael Theune, Gulf Coast “The only caveat for readers of Vectors is this: immediate illumination can be dangerous. Each entry of the 500 can be described as words to live by, each all too true. From the outset, the book earns the reader’s trust, and this empathetic attachment—perhaps even dependence—only deepens. Readers will be obsessed by this book; they will memorize passages, give copies to friends, proselytize. That’s because Vectors so generously provides the best that poetry can offer. It is a masterpiece of practicality, beauty, and solace.”—Brenda Shaughnessy, Boston Review "Vectors is the kind of book you read, reread, thumb through, and pick up several extra copies because you want to share the joy you found in perusing it with friends.” —Scott Hightower, Barrow Street “No one theme or moral pervades these tesserae of specificity. Rather, Richardson’s elegant compression invites the reader to fill in the blanks with personal experience…. Richardson’s knack for the quintessential, sustained for more than a hundred pages, left me satisfied yet hungry for more.” —Rachel Hadas, Times Literary Supplement |
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