Lyrical Objects: New & Selected Poems by Marne Kilates

Objects can assume the quality of the lyric. Only because poetry comes from the objects themselves. No ideas but in things, said the Imaginists. No music either. Everything breathes and vibrates in rhythm with everything. In the musica univsersalis, as the ancients say, or in the lay of locality. Poetry is a natural state, a fact that the poet, often serendipitously discovers. This collection brings together 60 new poems written over three months before the poet’s 60th birthday (plus some revisited and revised from the previous collections), to catch up with “time’s dictation” as “Dry leaves swirl in an eddy” and “The world keeps turning a whirl.” To catch up, too, with the poet’s daily encounters with reality and memory that breathe, vibrate, and celebrate life in counterpoint or harmony.

"If one counts by one's digits the poetry books Marne has crafted through the years, "Lyrical Objects" would complete the first handful, and would represent the poet's pollex or digitus primus..."
-Marjorie Evasco

"Marne's closest rival in poetry is only himself..."
-Gemino H. Abad

"Kilates reminds us that language in poetry should be adroit and concise, yet... risk-driven and reckless..."
-Joel M. Toledo