DescriptionIn Bright Body, Aliki Barnstone seeks to unite several dualities (mind and
body, spirit and matter, the individual and the body politic) each of which
circles back to the question, what can the individual do to heal global
suffering? Many of the poems are set in Las Vegas, a monument to
materialism, where one can satisfy every desire while time-traveling a
virtual world from contemporary Paris and New York to colonial Burma and
Caesar¹s Rome. Yet Vegas is also an immigrant city, vibrant, international,
whose beautiful mountains and sky dominate every human endeavor. This city
of extremes informs Barnstone¹s vision and serves as a backdrop for her
meditations on American history, war, the environment, erotic love, and the
love of mother and child.
Accolades"All of a sudden I understand why I like Aliki Barnstone's poems so much. They remind me of the one she has studied most - shall we call her her master - Emily Dickinson. Not in the forms, not, as such, in the music, and not in the references; but in that weird intimacy, that eerie closeness, that absolute confession of soul.... In Barnstone, too, the two worlds are intensely present, and the voice moves back and forth between them. She has the rare art of distance and closeness. It gives her her fine music, her wisdom, her form. She is a fine poet."
— Gerald Stern
"For Aliki Barnstone, poetry seems a natural medium. The vision and cadences of these poems suggest a sensibility for which poetry is as inevitable as breathing or eating."
—Robert Pinsky
"Aliki Barnstone is in full bloom, silkily erotic, and radiantly intelligent."
—Caroline Kizer
