A Frieze for a Temple of Love Author:Edward Field Coming on the heels of the very well received Counting Myself Lucky: Selected Poems 1963-1992, this new book of poems confirms Edward Field's reputation of one of our finest poets in the discursive narrative tradition. Field, a native New Yorker and longtime gay activist, writes poetry that is literate, immediate, funny and completely personal. ... more »These unforgettable poems are small essays on the human condition spoken by a trusted friend.
Among the surprise pleasures of Field's Frieze is "The Poetry File," a long sequence of prose ruminations on the American poetry scene in our time. At once gossipy, dishy, knowlegeable, witty, eloquent, this "insider" account names names without batting an eye: "Of course, poetry really has an inner elite. There is no democracy of standards in poetry . . . . To be a successful poet today you have to be very sophisticated, smooth, unassailable . . . self-referential."
Ed Field's poetry remains always referential to a world rather than to himself. And that world is a very real one.
"When I started writing," he recalled, "I wanted my poetry to save the world . . . . It has to do with poetry as magic, the magic of words.