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The Cineaste: Poems

A remarkable montage of poems that explore film, poetry, and the elusiveness of reverie.

In these poems that riff on A. Van Jordan’s life as a moviegoer, film serves as the setting for reverie, memoir, and pure fantasy. At the center is a sonnet sequence that imagines the struggle of pioneer filmmaker Oscar Micheaux against D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, which Micheaux saw not only as racist but also as the start of a powerful new art form.

from “Last Year at Marienbad”

A place, though visible, is like a ghost

of memories. Even memories one forgets

linger in the space in which they occurred.

Here within the expanse of vaulted ceilings,

doorways leading to more doors, hallways

leading to more halls, the faintest recollections

absorb over time; no act will wholly evanesce.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 160
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780393239157
  • Genres
  • poetry, film
  • Release date
  • 2013