{"id":3121,"date":"2013-08-27T19:32:19","date_gmt":"2013-08-27T19:32:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/?page_id=3121"},"modified":"2022-12-20T15:45:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T20:45:06","slug":"blinking-ephemeral-valentine","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/blinking-ephemeral-valentine\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinking Ephemeral Valentine"},"content":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″]\"Blinking<\/a><\/p>\n

paper \u2022 68 pages \u2022 15.95
\nISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-935536-09-3<\/p>\n

Add to Cart<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/column]<\/p>\n

Blinking Ephemeral Valentine<\/em><\/h1>\n

Joni Wallace<\/h2>\n

Winner of the 2009\u00a0Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry<\/em>
\nselected by Mary Jo Bang<\/p>\n

Winner of the Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry, Blinking Ephemeral Valentine<\/em>, by Joni Wallace, is a collection that seeks to resuscitate the concept of love amid modern-day landscapes and events that undercut the possibilities of genuine emotion. \u201cRemember our best night?\u201d Wallace asks, \u201cNot the drowning, not the self-same gasping as a makeshift blast broadcast through gaping windows\u2026\u201d Through collage and syntactic experiment, as well as fragmentation, Wallace recreates the break-neck speed of modern life, while clinging onto moments of transcendent emotion, however “blinking” and obscured. \u201cLet\u2019s meet back here in 5 minutes<\/em>, you say, you always say. \/ I\u2019ll bring the lite-brite. \/ I\u2019ll bring the hole in my heart\u2026\u201d Tough and edgy, these poems relinquish the worn and hollow paths of traditional romantic poetry for an approach that tells it slant, articulating the hidden: \u201cHere is where I think of you. \/ Here is a picture, negative, x-ray, reverse.\u201d<\/p>\n

A poet flexible with the main tool of her trade\u2014language\u2014Wallace\u2019s diction is energized and fresh: \u201cwaxshine of stiletto heels, \/ fur voltage, radiant \/ ringlets ringed in smoke.\u201d Void of stanza breaks and favoring enjambment, Wallace\u2019s imaginative leaps yank us through each poem with little time to breathe, or blink. She moves from \u201chairpins\u201d to \u201csaint-shaped scars graven \/ into arms outstretched\u201d to \u201cglass-eyes\u201d and \u201ca trayful, \/ the holy-shit-fires,\u201d within five lines. Such fast-paced, whiplash movement accentuates the ephemeral in these blinking valentines while also allowing us to see the negative space we might have otherwise missed. \u201cSometimes I think I understand \/ love like an image I don\u2019t cast,\u201d Wallace writes, \u201cbut when I run toward it my shadow contorts: crippled king, queen of knees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncut Year<\/em><\/p>\n

Wade right out in the Year of Excellent Clouds.<\/p>\n

Another evening, another park, another horse<\/p>\n

on which to ride. See the sky reflected<\/p>\n

on the tear films of an owlet? Paint a thing,<\/p>\n

trompe-l\u2019\u0153il, it comes. Trace the sun,<\/p>\n

do not look, see it see it without your eyes.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″] paper \u2022 68 pages \u2022 15.95 ISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-935536-09-3 Add to Cart [\/column] Blinking Ephemeral Valentine Joni Wallace Winner of the 2009\u00a0Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry selected by Mary Jo Bang Winner of the Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry, Blinking Ephemeral Valentine, by Joni Wallace, is a collection that seeks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3121","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3121"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18831,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3121\/revisions\/18831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}