Editor of the literary magazine MEMES, Norman Jope creates brief texts which explore time and identity in a mystical, lyrical language. In "Preparations for an Exit," a woman claims the night piece by piece, until "by her quiet courage, the edge invades the centre... and all things widen." Jope is a poet of the place where the personal reaches beyond itself to those common terrains, be they historical or metaphysical, we all share. His language is a cross between the literary and the folkloric, expressing quiet truths and observations calmly and with an assured ease. Ultimately, the question of what remains behind after death, how much of our words and thoughts continue in time, is at the heart of these musings; "Something of me shall remain--but I shall not choose its face."--Thomas Willoch
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #3,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1993, 1995.