64 pages, 26 poems, one for each letter of the alphabet 4.5″ x 6″
Geography” is the first of three sections of Breaking Down the Surface of the World, an extended poetic sequence. The haunting world of buried memory gives the poem epic dimension as the poet fuses cultural and historical forces with personal memory. Thus, a child’s discovery of the power of a single word recapitulates the invention of writing in ancient civilizations. By enlarging individual experience, we affirm our sense of continuity with the significant past. Breaking Down the Surface of the World weaves a narrative form with the meditative lyric and the fragmented visions of the Surrealists. At its core, it describes one person’s struggle through pain and loss to reach spiritual transcendance.
Grapes is not an artiste-savior out to heal the world in his own image, just a poet whose writing is unpretentious, honest, and humanistic. These qualities make us care when Grapes dishes up little slices of his life on paper. He unfolds his world with courage and forthrightness.
Mark Watt, “Great Overlooked Books