rev. of Discography by Sean Singer
by
Discography,
poems by Sean Singer (Yale): Selected by W. S. Merwin as winner of the 2001 Yale Series of Younger Poets, Sean Singer's
Discography is a singular, quirky, and, at times, astonishingly beautiful first book. While jazz provides the central subject matter and metaphor for the collection, Singer's poems don't spend much time in rooms clouded by smoky cliché; rather, his songs step out into the music itself, where they wander the universe of love, despair, history, Judaism, and hope in search of a song of self. Singer begins by making "The Old Record": "Rolled out of the hot machine . . . / metal on black, / back to back thimble weights, diamond / and rinsed / to a new shine, / lunge and pull into circles, / 100 grooves to the centimeter, / calling it vinyl, midnight candle. . . ." Then he puts the needle to the disc-and spins.
-David Daniel