Oracle Figures

Eric Pankey

Known for his formally inventive and elegant lyrics, Pankey explores new territory in Oracle Figures, his sixth book. In language that’s deeply satisfying for its precision unpredictable imagination, he takes us on an adventure of mind, asking and answering important questions about human consciousness and the art of making poems.

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ISBN: 9781931337083

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781931337076

Format: Hardcover

The Reconstruction of the Fictive Space

I open my eyes and a season passes:
A single moth wing shudders on the sill.
The gate cannot open into the overgrown grass.

But the way, lit by foxfire and firefly,
By the flint-flash of grit at the pearl’s heart,
Is a past words cannot return to history,

To what the swallows inscribe on the air,
And here, on the outskirts of memory,
I look off again into that distance,

As if into a future, the lightning opening
Before my eyes like Scripture.
The equation at hand can be proven

By the spiral descent of the fishhawk,
By the curve of a tiger-lily’s stalk.
Yet all I see is surface glare,

An afterlife of the afterimage.

About the Author

Eric Pankey is the author of many collections of poetry and recently a collection of essays, Vestiges: Notes, Responses & Essays 1988-2018. His work has been supported by fellowships from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, the Brown Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. A professor of English and the Heritage Chair in Writing at George Mason University, Pankey lives in Fairfax, Virginia.

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Reviews

“Pankey has become a poet of formidable skill and achievement.” —Verse

“Pankey’s voice is elegant, his language as lovely as the images it carries.” —FIELD

“Pankey is masterful when it comes to form, always choosing wisely, carefully, authentically, allowing the subject matter and language to drive his choices. The variety of line and stanza lengths makes for satisfying reading. These poems exhibit a control that is at once sophisticated and natural. Most rewarding—these are poems that demand to be reread.” —New Pages