Into the Ruins: Poems
By Frederick Glaysher. Hardcover $19.95. Preface. Earthrise Press, 1999. 73 pages. ISBN-10: 0967042127. ISBN: 9780967042121.
Softcover. $16.00. Preface. Earthrise Press, 2009; 2020 Edition. 73 pages. ISBN: 9780967042190. Purchase on Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million. Order Books Worldwide. Printed in the USA, UK, Australia, India, worldwide.
Twenty years in the making, beyond Postmodernism, probing the nihilism of the age, Into the Ruins confronts much of the human experience left out of the balance by postmodern poetry, often compared to the Alexandrians and the Neoterics, when writers similarly concentrated on the minor themes of personal life, while ignoring the challenging experience of the public realm. Suffused with a global tragic vision, into the ruins of the 20th Century, Glaysher has his gaze fixed firmly on the 21st.
Reading from Into the Ruins: Poems and The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem. November 30, 2015. Hosted by M. L. Liebler. Funded by Poets & Writers, Inc. Poets & Pies Series: Special Holiday Edition. Hannan Cafe. Off campus at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.
Reviews
"At high points, his poetry captures the feelings of contingency and horror felt by many but expressed well by few.... Glaysher fits well within the literary tradition, as he shows with his allusions to or mentions of, among others, Augustine, Dante, Yeats, Dostoyevsky, and Hayden; however, his voice is distinct. Among contemporary poets, few have a vision as darkly haunting.... Few also have the knowledge and the ability to handle contemporary issues with such presence of language. Out of the mass of recent poetry books, here is one you should read." —Jack Magazine
"A litany of horrors updating Eliot’s Waste Land, the book upbraids poets for turning inward only to concerns of the self." —North American Review
"I will definitely be checking out more of his work in the future (Parliament of Poets looks good). This book deals with many of the horrors and terrors of the long 20th century, and in many ways chastises the poets of this period for not finding an effective way to confront that horror.
"...this book is quite good. It is well laid out, and does what so few collection of poems do-- that is build an argument or overall claim. There are short pieces that deal with the visceral horrors of conflict, relying on powerful imagery, and then longer drawn out philosophical pieces that culminate what Glaysher has been saying.
"The result is a collection that makes shorter, powerful jabs, followed by a prolonged punch. The reader is therefore left with the power of the poetry as the poems build on each other in rapid succession. Well written, thought out, and containing a clear purpose, I highly recommend Into the Ruins and look forward to reading Glaysher's other works." —Goodreads
"Powerful poetry..." —Katnip Reviews
"His poetry is fluid and rhythmic. ...thoughtful and provocative." —Main Street Rag
"A book about something other than an author’s reflections in a mirror." —Expansive Poetry
"A poetic reflection on postmodern life, with a particular focus on the limitations of both Eastern and Western thought. Collectively offers a higher path to universality for our future." —EdwardHamilton
"Fred Glaysher takes us on a journey to that larger dimension of responsibility where thought meets action. This is a poetry of connectedness, which asks us to bring together broken parts of our cultures (both East and West) and search for a new identity, perhaps a new world order. His finely crafted poems are accessible and have a purpose that needs to be heard. " —WPON Interview
"Equivalent to the shock of visiting a holocaust museum depicting all the world’s victims of genocide. The imagery he flashes in this gallery of atrocity, hopefully will sensitize readers to the extent that they will recognize the moral imperative of conquering the evil inherent in man." —Collages & Bricolages
"It is argued that now poets must turn to contemplating the real world and Glaysher is remarkable in his achievement of this. It is excellent poetry; his words and images hit you right in the gut. Well worth reading." —Poetry Greece
"An impressively broad survey of atrocity." —Chicago Poetry
"Frederick Glaysher prefaces his collection of poems with the declaration that 'poets must turn to viewing and contemplating the real world, where men butcher and kill, love and hate, aspire and sometimes achieve...' which is echoed throughout Into The Ruins. Presented in 5 parts, Glaysher dangles language fueled visions of reality hauntingly similar to every day news snippets that pound at us continuously via TV, radio, and print. Often gruesome and relentless, Glaysher’s images are dark and horrifying; yet, a true to life presentation of the world and possibly personal events as seen through his eyes. Into The Ruins dishes out scenes of death and destruction impressing a distinct poetic style along with a macabre rendering of the mayhem people continuously seem to inflict on one another. It weaves a refreshing presentation of language with a heart-stopping example of contemporary life." —Poetry Market Ezine
"Frederick Glaysher’s poetry is one of artistic energy, an articulate and penetrating voice. A poetry of lyrical passion and clear-eyed depiction." —The Midwest Book Review
Contents
Preface ix
I
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters 3
Midnight Visitors 4
The Pit of Darkness 5
Danse Macabre 6
Locusts 7
Camp II 9
Gulag Wayfarers 10
Oracle Bones 11
Heartland America 12II
Into the Ruins 15
Old Baltimore 20
Rodin’s Gates of Hell 21
Hibakusha Nightmare 24
Advent of the Beast 25
Raskolnikov’s Dream 26
To the New City 27
Long Journey Through Night 29
The Crowned Maitreya 30 (Chaminade Literary Review 1995)
Carnelian Blemish 32
Leader of the People 33
Vignette 35
Chairman of the Board 36
At a Mass Grave 38
Wild Goose Pagodas 39III
A Conversation on the Forum 43
Mud-Wrestlers 47
Derrida in Doubt 48
The Looking-Glass 49IV
Elijah Lovejoy 53
Woodrow Wilson 54
Eleanor Roosevelt 55
Albert Einstein 56
Dag Hammarskjold 57
Homage to Mark Tobey 58
Elegy for Robert Hayden 59 (Empyrea 1980)V
To Penelope 63
Intimations 64
Kagi 65
Basic Training 66 (Chaminade Literary Review 1991)
A Visit to Aunt Amy’s 67
Leaving the Old Country 68
The Dream 69
The Dark Wood 70
Chamber Music 71
From Preface
...far from withdrawing further into the self and into an obfuscating use of language, poets must turn to viewing and contemplating the real world, where men butcher and kill, love and hate, aspire and sometimes achieve. For out of our experience and contemplation of the past and present, a deeper understanding of history and of what it means to be a human being is now beginning to emerge, opening the way to a new future, in a new century. W. H. Auden once wrote that radical change in artistic style is contingent on "radical change in human sensibility." The unrelenting movement of modern times toward the oneness of humankind has sufficiently been made explicit—an epic movement that allows, produces, and requires a fundamental change in sensibility.