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HUNTERS POINT PRESS
Goodbye Letter
By Jeremy Sigler. Edited by Barney Kulok.
Concrete and permutational poems celebrating a serene atrophy of language, from the author of My Vibe
In his latest collection, Goodbye Letter, New York-based poet Jeremy Sigler (born 1968) deconstructs his very will to write, as he articulates, verbally and graphically, the implied obsolescence of language itself. The book feels less like a proper literary work (a book of poetry) and more like a manual for poetic survival. One poem reads like some sort of linguistic code that manages to murmur “it is what it is”; another is more classically “concrete,” reflecting on typewriter and pattern poems of past centuries; and another consists of a complete signature of unmarked blank pages (they await being torn out and curled up into a loose tube) as was the 19th-century prototype for the stethoscope, but used this time to listen in on the poet’s “speaking” heart. Sigler’s newest collection may be seen as a field guide to a poet’s last gasp.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Tablet
Marjorie Perloff
It’s fun to play the game of seeing the neutral alphabet reveal its hidden stories... and the same holds true for some of the sequences in Sigler’s elegantly produced new book Goodbye Letter—a book of alphabets, glyphs, visual poems...and even musical scores....vintage witty [and] conceptual...
Lit Hub
Jeremy Sigler
[A] deconstruction of the author’s will to write,” let alone “the implied obsolescence of language itself.”
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Featured spreads are from Goodbye Letter,Hunters Point Press's seriously gorgeous new collection of despairing yet playful and ultimately optimistic visual poems, appropriations and word puzzles by Jeremy Sigler. Sometimes addressing sound and language—as in phonemes and musical scores—and other times addressing writing and language—as in keyboard design and codes—Sigler's work in this book is "vintage witty [and] conceptual," in the words of poetry scholar Marjorie Perloff. Some works are deceptively emotional, like one appropriated text explaining the origin of the stethoscope, which operates as love poem (secretly dedicated to Sigler's father, a pediatrician). This is followed by a signature of perforated blank pages meant to be torn out and used to listen to the human heart. Another perforated poem ends the book with half-ironic comedy; it's a tear-out letter addressed to the National Register of Historic Places, nominating Sigler's Brooklyn apartment for landmark status, "ensuring that future readers and enthusiasts have the opportunity to observe where the poet lived, sit at the table where he wrote, recline on the daybed where he napped, and gaze out his window—to, as Sigler once said, 'stand naked in the poet's boots.'" continue to blog
FORMAT: Pbk, 6.25 x 8.5 in. / 176 pgs. LIST PRICE: U.S. $29.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $41.95 GBP £27.00 ISBN: 9780578576916 PUBLISHER: Hunters Point Press AVAILABLE: 9/29/2020 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Published by Hunters Point Press. By Jeremy Sigler. Edited by Barney Kulok.
Concrete and permutational poems celebrating a serene atrophy of language, from the author of My Vibe
In his latest collection, Goodbye Letter, New York-based poet Jeremy Sigler (born 1968) deconstructs his very will to write, as he articulates, verbally and graphically, the implied obsolescence of language itself. The book feels less like a proper literary work (a book of poetry) and more like a manual for poetic survival. One poem reads like some sort of linguistic code that manages to murmur “it is what it is”; another is more classically “concrete,” reflecting on typewriter and pattern poems of past centuries; and another consists of a complete signature of unmarked blank pages (they await being torn out and curled up into a loose tube) as was the 19th-century prototype for the stethoscope, but used this time to listen in on the poet’s “speaking” heart. Sigler’s newest collection may be seen as a field guide to a poet’s last gasp.
