Allman, John

Loew's Triboro: Poems

ISBN: 9780811215770
New York, NY, USA: New Directions, 2004. First Edition. Softcover. “It wasn’t just the war. Or wearing a little officer’s uniform, / the leather strap across my chest / like a seat belt so I wouldn’t hit my head on the future. / My sister turning so red from measles she lit up the dingy / back room where mother siphoned / electricity from the hall fixture. / It wasn’t poverty that pulled / darkness down. Maybe the slap / across the face, my mother’s glasses flying across the kitchen, / my father swaying like a branch some bird just left, flying away / from emptiness. But two nights / later, I’d hear them grunting in the bedroom, so it wasn’t homily / or forgiveness. / That’s not why / my eyes dilated against the light, against the laws of the body and / reason. Or why they opened wide in the cigarette smoke of movie / balconies. Seeing what wasn’t there.”--John Allman, “So,” pg 5. John Allman (b. 1935) is a poet who has received The Helen Bulls Prize from Poetry Northwest, a Pushcart Poetry Prize, and two National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships in Poetry (1984 and 1990). His work has been widely published in such magazines as The Atlantic Monthly, The American Poetry Review, Paris Review, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and The Massachusetts Review. Offered today is the 2004 collection, Loew’s Triboro. A collection of poetry and short prose, Loew’s Triboro is an astounding compilation of some of Allman’s best writings. Often lyrical, visceral, nostalgic, and at times arcane Allman’s writing is endemic of the sort of Baudelaire-meets-Whitman-meets-Faulkner-esque inspirations that clearly motivate Allman’s style and poetic/prose voice. From back cover: “In Loew’s Triboro, John Allman’s fourth collection of poems with New Directions, the poet recalls the movie palace in Astoria, Queens, and it’s centrality to the lives and fantasies of the people in the neighborhood, himself among them. In a combination of prose poems and free verse. Sometimes darkly funny, Allman juxtaposes vignettes from the streets of New York with the movies of the period, revisioning such film noir classics as The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, and The Asphalt Jungle. “The movie theatre in this book,” says Allman, “is the place of darkness where lives are expanded and our culture defines itself through its most common denominators. The projections on the screen are scripts of fate, people caught up by love or violence, as real lives slip in among the film lives–and vice versa.”” One of Allman’s most beloved and critically lauded works, Loew’s Triboro is a magnetic and incredibly compelling work. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), poet, editor, and professor in the University of Michigan Department of English Language and Literature. Trade-format softcover. First softcover edition as stated at copyright page, presumed first printing though not explicated as such thereon. In very fine condition with minimal wear to fine edges, and slight smudging to front and back covers. Otherwise appears substantially mint inside & out. Very Fine. [Item #8063]

Price: $30.00