Handwriting

Commendation Quotes: "Extremely beautiful". -- Robert Hass, The Washington Post Book ReviewJacket Description/Back: The exquisite poems collected in Handwriting -- Michael Ondaatje's first book of new poems since The Cinnamon Peeler -- recall "the vista of a life". Drawing on history, mythology, landscape, and personal memories of Sri Lank, Ondaatje weaves a rich tapestry of images that evoke desire for -- and anguish over -- scents and gestures of lost loves, homes, and language. The verses, at turns spare and luminous, demonstrate the poet's unique artistry as he contemplates "the mirror world of art" in a time before books, when "handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke", recounts medieval monks "burying the Buddha in stone" amid the battle fire of war, and remembers a woman's "laughter with its/ intake of breath. Uhh huh". Crafted with lyrical delicacy and seductive power, Handwriting reminds us of Michael Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. Jacket Description/Flap: "Tumultuous, vibrant, tragic and over too soon." --"Newsday Handwriting is Michael Ondaatje's first new book of poetry since The Cinnamon Peeler. The exquisite poems collected here draw on history, mythology, landscape, and personal memories to weave a rich tapestry of images that reveal the longing for--and expose the anguish over--lost loves, homes, and language, as the poet contemplates scents and gestures and evokes a time when "handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke" and remembers a woman's "laughter with its / intake of breath. Uhh huh." Crafted with lyrical delicacy and seductive power, Handwriting reminds us of Michael Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. Biographical Note: Michael Ondaatje is the author of three previous novels, a memoir and eleven books of poetry. His novel The English Patient won the Booker Prize. Born in Sri Lanka, he moved to Canada in 1962 and now lives in Toronto. Review Quotes: "Richly sensual images.... [Ondaatje] contracts the narrative to a few concrete images, giving his verse a mysterious reticence." --"The New York Times Book Review" "Poems that are virtual hybrids of the contemporary and the ancient." --"Boston Book Review" "Smooth poetic lines.... Another finely polished Ondaatje gem." -- "Time Out-New York" "Extremely beautiful." --Robert Hass, "The Washington Post"Publisher Marketing: "Tumultuous, vibrant, tragic and over too soon." --"Newsday" Handwriting is Michael Ondaatje's first new book of poetry since The Cinnamon Peeler. The exquisite poems collected here draw on history, mythology, landscape, and personal memories to weave a rich tapestry of images that reveal the longing for--and expose the anguish over--lost loves, homes, and language, as the poet contemplates scents and gestures and evokes a time when "handwriting occurred on waves, / on leaves, the scripts of smoke" and remembers a woman's "laughter with its / intake of breath. Uhh huh." Crafted with lyrical delicacy and seductive power, Handwriting reminds us of Michael Ondaatje's stature as one of the finest poets writing today. Review Citations: New York Times 03/26/2000 pg. 32 (EAN 9780375705410, Paperback) Publishers Weekly 02/22/1999 pg. 88 (EAN 9780375405594, Hardcover) Booklist 03/01/1999 pg. 1145 (EAN 9780375405594, Hardcover) New York Times 04/11/1999 pg. 24 (EAN 9780375405594, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1999 pg. 118 (EAN 9780375405594, Hardcover) Library Journal 04/15/1999 (EAN 9780375405594, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Ondaatje, Michael Michael Ondaatje is a novelist and poet perhaps best known for his Booker Prize winning novel adapted into an Academy Award-winning film, The English Patient. His other books include Secular Love, In the Skin of a Lion, Running in the Family, and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. He edited From Ink Lake, a selection of Canadian stories, and has won several Governor General's Award for both fiction and poetry.