Elsewhere
Published on 1. October 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
136 pages
978-1-84471-275-5 (ISBN)
Description
Presenting work that John Mateer has previously published in South Africa, Australia, Indonesia and Japan, Elsewhere is an introduction to a poet whose work has been steadily receiving international attention over the past decade.
Elsewhere is divided into three sections: "Azania", "Medan and Zipangu" and "Americas".
The poems of "Azania" describe the poet's memories of South Africa and his impressions when he has revisited the land of his birth, encountering animals, ghosts, Zulu and Maori poets, goldminers, gambling `madams' and the urban ruins left in the wake of immigration.
"Medan and Zipangu" contain work written and published in Sumatra and Japan. More metaphysical than the South African poems, these poems capture the spiritual turmoil of one who finds in the act of encounter the means of undoing the psychic violence of the past. Sensual and detailed, they are steps towards the healing of a traumatized psyche, the rebirth of a wandering ghost.
The section concluding the book, "Americas", reframes Mateer's world through reference to those other New Worlds that are actually Old Worlds: the United States and Mexico. More ironic than any of his other work, these poems are pointed and political - one about Ground Zero, another about a Slovene poet who, with the poet, seeks out a shrine dedicated to Saint Death - and some with a deft sense of humour and surprisingly sexiness.
Elsewhere is as much a personal vision of today's world, its excitements and plentitude, as it is a moral accounting of the history of the past five hundred years of Western colonization. John Mateer is a lyric poet for our global age.
Elsewhere is divided into three sections: "Azania", "Medan and Zipangu" and "Americas".
The poems of "Azania" describe the poet's memories of South Africa and his impressions when he has revisited the land of his birth, encountering animals, ghosts, Zulu and Maori poets, goldminers, gambling `madams' and the urban ruins left in the wake of immigration.
"Medan and Zipangu" contain work written and published in Sumatra and Japan. More metaphysical than the South African poems, these poems capture the spiritual turmoil of one who finds in the act of encounter the means of undoing the psychic violence of the past. Sensual and detailed, they are steps towards the healing of a traumatized psyche, the rebirth of a wandering ghost.
The section concluding the book, "Americas", reframes Mateer's world through reference to those other New Worlds that are actually Old Worlds: the United States and Mexico. More ironic than any of his other work, these poems are pointed and political - one about Ground Zero, another about a Slovene poet who, with the poet, seeks out a shrine dedicated to Saint Death - and some with a deft sense of humour and surprisingly sexiness.
Elsewhere is as much a personal vision of today's world, its excitements and plentitude, as it is a moral accounting of the history of the past five hundred years of Western colonization. John Mateer is a lyric poet for our global age.
Reviews / Votes
No one writes like John Mateer ... And no one combines observation and metaphysics in quite the way he does. -- Kevin Hart, author of The Dark Gaze: Maurice Blanchot and the Sacred Mateer's manner and the complex resonances of his work reminded me a little of the prose of his compatriot, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist J.M. Coetzee. The poems are inquisitorial, ethically preoccupied and sometimes powerfully intense. -- David Burleigh, The Japan TimesMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84471-275-5 (9781844712755)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
John Mateer was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He has published five books of poems, several chapbooks and a prose travelogue about Indonesia. It has been his practice to publish outside the usual circulation of English-language literature, often having the initial publication of his work issued by small publishers in Johannesburg, Kyoto, Fremantle or Sumatra. He travels frequently to read his work, and has been invited to the 62nd World Congress of PEN, Poetry Africa 2001, Portugal's International Meeting of Poets, the Festival of Poetry and Wine in Slovenia and the Chicago Humanities Festival. In 2005 he was an honorary fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program. He currently lives in Perth, Australia.
Content
Azania
(Echo)
Darkness
My Mother's Memory
For The Mothers
Remembering Seeris
Johannesburg
Silence
Unbeliever
Karoo Night: A Childhood Memory
An African City
The Alchemist
Valkenburg
Dark Horse
Mountain
Ascending Devil's Peak
Love Letter
Lullaby
The Guide
The Elephant Graveyard
Video Messages
Thornbush
Makwerekwere
My Europe
Uit Mantra
A Streetkid
"My Name Is Also John"
Ethekweni
In The Valley Of A Thousand Hills
Going Home On The Bus From Pretoria To Kwandebele, 3 January 1984
An Empty Flat
On The Mines
Artefacts Found On The Highveld
Two Kinds Of Silence
Monte Casino
Medan & Zipangu
Mister! Mister! Mister!
Two Images
Looking At A Book
That Voice
Be Careful
Amok
No Woman...
Translated Man
The Monkey-Seller's Stall
The Rock
This Path
Takbiran
Rain
The Ancient Capital Of Images
Dead Leaves Of Tokyo
Industry: Two Kinds
The Cockatoo
A Portrait Of The Future
Osore-Zan
The Ancient Capital Of Images
Autumn Is Everywhere
Saigyo's Cherry Tree
On Seeing The Golden Pavilion
Under The Temple
The Deepest North
Contemplating A Migrane
Americas
Empire
Empire
Two Faces Of A New World
First Person
The College Girl As Cypher
The Dream
Composition Of Unease
Appointment With An Exile
The Salutation We Heard Up In Harlem
That I Might Be Mexican...
The Virgin Of Guadalupe
Condessa
That I Might Be Mexican...
Casa De Los Azulejos
Invitation To A Slovenian Poet
Das Kapital
Ambrose
On Two Paintings By Anonymous
Ruins
Words In The Mouth Of A Holy Ghost
(Echo)
Darkness
My Mother's Memory
For The Mothers
Remembering Seeris
Johannesburg
Silence
Unbeliever
Karoo Night: A Childhood Memory
An African City
The Alchemist
Valkenburg
Dark Horse
Mountain
Ascending Devil's Peak
Love Letter
Lullaby
The Guide
The Elephant Graveyard
Video Messages
Thornbush
Makwerekwere
My Europe
Uit Mantra
A Streetkid
"My Name Is Also John"
Ethekweni
In The Valley Of A Thousand Hills
Going Home On The Bus From Pretoria To Kwandebele, 3 January 1984
An Empty Flat
On The Mines
Artefacts Found On The Highveld
Two Kinds Of Silence
Monte Casino
Medan & Zipangu
Mister! Mister! Mister!
Two Images
Looking At A Book
That Voice
Be Careful
Amok
No Woman...
Translated Man
The Monkey-Seller's Stall
The Rock
This Path
Takbiran
Rain
The Ancient Capital Of Images
Dead Leaves Of Tokyo
Industry: Two Kinds
The Cockatoo
A Portrait Of The Future
Osore-Zan
The Ancient Capital Of Images
Autumn Is Everywhere
Saigyo's Cherry Tree
On Seeing The Golden Pavilion
Under The Temple
The Deepest North
Contemplating A Migrane
Americas
Empire
Empire
Two Faces Of A New World
First Person
The College Girl As Cypher
The Dream
Composition Of Unease
Appointment With An Exile
The Salutation We Heard Up In Harlem
That I Might Be Mexican...
The Virgin Of Guadalupe
Condessa
That I Might Be Mexican...
Casa De Los Azulejos
Invitation To A Slovenian Poet
Das Kapital
Ambrose
On Two Paintings By Anonymous
Ruins
Words In The Mouth Of A Holy Ghost