Divine Blue Light (For John Coltrane) - Pocket Poets Series No. 63

"Divine Blue Light is anchored by three major works: the opening 'Condoned to Disappearance,' a meditation on the heteronymic exploits of Portuguese modernist Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), the closing 'Imprecation as Mirage,' a poem channeling an apparently real Indonesian man, Taroon Kampoor, whose name spontaneously appeared in the poet's mind, and the title poem, an anthemic ode to the deconstructive maximalism of jazz saxophonist John Coltrane (1926-1967). Other key pieces include 'Accessing Gertrude Bell,' a critique of its titular subject (1868-1926), one of the architects of British Middle East policy and designers of the modern state of Iraq, 'Deficits: Chaèim Soutine & Joan Mirâo,' in homage to two Jewish artists forced to flee the Nazi Invasion of France, and 'According to Stellar Scale,' a compact lyric brought to and read in orbital space by astronaut Sian Proctor on the 2021 Inspiration4 mission. A kinetic explosion of language that emanates from the intersection between surrealism and afro-futurism, where Câesaire meets Sun Ra, Divine Blue Light further affirms Alexander's status as one of the most unique and important voices in contemporary poetry, as well as highlighting his connection to his Pocket Poet predecessors and inspirations, Philip Lamantia and Bob Kaufman"

About the author

Born in 1948 in Los Angeles, Will Alexander is a poet, novelist, playwright, philosopher, visual artist, and musician. He has published over two dozen books in a variety of genres and has earned many honors and awards including a Whiting Fellowship for Poetry, a California Arts Council Fellowship, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, a Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award, and the 2016 Jackson Poetry Prize. He has also exhibited his artwork in group and solo shows. His work is known for its visionary, oracular surrealism and the influence of Negritude. Among his publications are Refractive Africa (New Directions, 2021/Granta, 2022), which was named a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and won the California Book Award for Poetry, The Combustion Cycle (Roof, 2021), Across the Vapor Gulf (New Directions, 2017), and The Sri Lankan Loxodrome (New Directions, 2009). His book Compression & Purity (2011) was volume five in the City Lights Spotlight Poetry Series. He is currently the
poet-in-residence at Beyond Baroque in Venice, California. He has lived his entire life in Los Angeles.

Summary

From Will Alexander, finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, a new collection of poems from the intersection between surrealism and afro-futurism, where Césaire meets Sun Ra. Divine Blue Light further affirms Alexander’s status as one of the most unique and innovative voices in contemporary poetry.
One of Publishers Weekly’s Top 10 Notable Poetry Books for Fall 2022!
“Since the 1980s, the Los Angeles-based Alexander has mixed politics with mesmeric, oracular lines.”—The New York Times
Against the ruins of a contemporary globalist discourse, which he denounces as a “lingual theocracy of super-imposed rationality,” Will Alexander’s poems constitute an alternative cartography that draws upon omnivorous reading—in subjects from biology to astronomy to history to philosophy—amalgamating their diverse vocabularies into an impossible instrument only he can play. Divine Blue Light is anchored by three major works: the opening “Condoned to Disappearance,” a meditation on the heteronymic exploits of Portuguese modernist Fernando Pessoa; the closing “Imprecation as Mirage,” a poem channeling an Indonesian man; and the title poem, an anthemic ode to the jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Other key pieces include “Accessing Gertrude Bell,” a critique of one of the designers of the modern state of Iraq; “Deficits: Chaïm Soutine & Joan Miró,” in homage to two Jewish artists forced to flee the Nazi invasion of France; and “According to Stellar Scale,” a compact lyric that traveled to space with astronaut Sian Proctor. The newest installment in our Pocket Poets Series, Divine Blue Light confirms Alexander’s status among the foremost surrealists writing in English today.
Praise for Divine Blue Light:
"Adopting a surrealist approach to making sense of the universe, Alexander plumbs language for its limits, often with dazzling results....Pondering the mysteries of existence and artistic influence, this engrossing work turns the quest for self-knowledge into a choral act."—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Alexander’s range—which moves past the propriety of each subject to the expansiveness of every—can be approximated as Aimé Césaire’s totality of the lion, or form and emptiness, or appositional, apparitional Black being. And this being is most real and realized through the collection’s quantum mechanics and dynamics, which Alexander invokes astrophysically, evokes metaphysically."—Jenna Peng, The Poetry Foundation

"These surrealist and Afrofuturist poems examine politics, globalism, and the powers and limitations of language, while paying tribute to artists forced to flee the Nazi invasion of France.”—Maya Popa, Publishers Weekly

"The 'invisible current' Will Alexander channels in the meteoric poems of Divine Blue Light is not surreal escape but vibrational engagement—an engagement with the infinite streams of the heart of being."—Jeffrey Yang, author of Line and Light
"Like agua tilting itself into a god, Will’s texts suffuse the horizon of Poetry with the abstract purity of their oceanic movements, sun-condensing, dissolving seemingly endless sight into a disappearing instant of the Miraculous. Divine Blue Light exists by what it exudes."—Carlos Lara, author of Like Bismuth When I Enter

Foreword

• Galleys are available upon request
• Co-op is available
• Pursuing reviews/interviews: American Poetry Review, American Poet, Bookforum, Booklist, Boston Review, Brooklyn Rail, Colorlines, on Democracy Now, Guardian, KQED, LA Review of Books, LA Times, Library Journal, n+1, The Nation, NPR, NY Review of Books, NY Times, Poetry Magazine, Poetry Project Newsletter, Publisher's Weekly, Rain Taxi, The Rumpus, Shelf Awareness, SF Chronicle, Slate, Teen Vogue, and The Washington Post, among other spots.
• Pursuing excerpts in major publications including The New Yorker, Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, Lit Hub, Paris Review, and elsewhere.
• Will pursue event programming especially in Los Angeles, the author's longtime residence and collaborate with Beyond Baroque and other cultural institutions in the area. 
• Promotion via City Lights’s popular social media accounts. 
• Pursuing author profiles in major outlets like Poets & Writers, Lit Hub and other places. 

Product details

• Authors: Will Alexander
• Publisher: City Light Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.11.2022
• EAN: 9780872868700
• ISBN: 978-0-87286-870-0
• No. of pages: 150
• Series: City Lights Pocket Poets Series; City Lights Pocket Poets
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Social sciences, law, business > Ethnology > Ethnology; POETRY / American / General, POETRY / Subjects & Themes / General