Vault

Poetry. From the celestial vault to the crypt, from the bank vault to memory, from gymnastics to the cultural vaults of dictionary, encyclopedia, folk lore and myth, these poems embody all the meanings of the word. Just as a vault can hold or leap, VAULT melds the movements of a mind, of an athlete leaping through air in a forceful and graceful way, of a tongue at play among various sound constellations. The method in this book is one of discontinuity and collage, blending together the contents of our cultural vaults. Because the vowel is the center of the breath, and because sound is a fundamental anchor of sensory experience, a sequence of poems with vowel titles resides within the larger sequence. Several words appear which contain all the vowels in order, for example, making use of the author's medical background, placentiferous. Calligraphy contains two abecedarian sentences relying on the alphabet as vault. The poems are written in long-lined couplets, which acknowledge the architectural elements of vault and spandrel and recollect a heartbeat's systole and diastole, sound and silence, the ever-present binary pulse of being and non-being.

With a beautifully careful eye on the finest details, Alice Jones discovers delicate connections among surprisingly diverse things. Parthenon marbles, small flames on the Ganges, Mount Tamalpais, and sparking synapses all take part in her exquisitely choreographed paean to existence. Her precise attention embraces everything, whether frightening or joyous, tragic or triumphant, always supported by a love of the world that is apparent in every line.--Cole Swensen