Monkey Time

By Philip Nikolayev Description Reviews Boxes are hoaxes of the imagination,they fold out backwardsand proceed to foreclose themselvesfrom the other sideOf Nikolayev’s accomplished first book, Robert Kelly writes: “Nothing escapes his formal insistence to renew... A wild, generous book, full of invention.” Winner of the 2001 Verse Prize, selected by Lyn Hejinian These are poems that are riveting for the immediacy and urgency of a language that draws deeply upon the springs of language, while inventing new idioms to make us feel the world that we live in. They are full of lines ‘that cause tears to flow / and cheers to follow’ (‘Boxes’). Throughout, Nikolayev is relentlessly resourceful, finding ways to, in Eliot’s famous words, ‘dance / Like a dancing bear, / Cry like a parrot, chatter like an ape.’ The message is urgent. It is possible to be fully alive. This is poetry with ears. Ben Mazer, Jacket MagazineReading Nikolayev you become acutely aware of three things: firstly