The hand is second only to language in defining the human being, and its constant presence makes it a ready reminder of our humanity, with all its privileges and obligations. In this dazzling collection, Cole Swensen explores the hand from any angle approachable by language and art. Her hope: to exhaust the hand as subject matter; her joy: the fact that she couldn鈥檛.
These short poems reveal the hand from a hundred different perspectives. Incorporating sign language, drawing manuals, paintings from the 14th to the 20th century, shadow puppets, imagined histories, positions (the 鈥渉and as a boatless sail鈥), and professions (鈥渢he hand as window in which the panes infinitesimal鈥), Cole Swensen鈥檚 fine hand is 鈥渢hat which augments鈥 our understanding and appreciation of 鈥渢his freak wing,鈥 this 鈥渨heel that comforts none鈥 yet remains 鈥渁 fruit the size and shape of the heart.鈥
鈥The Book of a Hundred Hands shows one of our most gifted poets at the top of her form. Swensen鈥檚 meditations on the classical tradition of ekphrasis and its continuation into our contemporary so-called secular world inspire her concern for the moment of transition between the visual and the verbal. Ear and eye meet in the hand drawn and defined. 鈥楽omething shifting between / I saw and I heard.鈥 For this poet every mark made on paper is an acoustic signal. As she wonderfully puts it in 鈥楪rip,鈥 鈥榯he intricate isthmus of the wrist made initial.鈥欌濃擲usan Howe
