andreasgripp.com
Recent Reviews of Anathema: Poems Selected & New
and Reader Comments on the Poetry of Andreas Gripp
Recent Reviews of Anathema: Poems Selected & New
and Reader Comments on the Poetry of Andreas Gripp
Anathema: Poems Selected & New by Andreas Gripp
Reviewed by Katherine L. Gordon
Poet & Columnist, Ancient Heart Magazine (U.K.)
Anathema as a title, suggests the banned and cursed. The gorgeous graphics of the front and back
covers illustrate the concept with the perfection of pathos. The weeping, grief-distraught angel
confronting you and the soil-splattered marble child on the reverse speak of a ruined purity, a doctrine
lost.
Anathema also addresses the daring of this poet to visit emotional corners that most contemporaries
avoid. Andreas Gripp's special signature, as an exciting modern poet, is to lead you trembling into
terrible truths: a book of loss exquisitely delineated by the knife of the poet's language. Lost dreams lurk
despite being shredded in cruel reality. Gripp faces and articulates life's barbed twists, and we cannot
resist the harsh drama that we have experienced and buried so much of, ourselves. He gives us time to
love / a little.
The City exposes urban experience as steamy, fearful yet full: I feel no enmity with it. We become as
rigid shapes: / dried / on canvas snared in Le Fait Accompli, the neutrals of life breaking us bland.
All the flaws of cultural and religious rule that suppress so much natural joy, the anathema of doctrines
denounced, come tantalyzingly alive in these poems: teaching their kids to kiss the trees isn't idolatry /
when we consider the weight of crowns, / of gold and of thorns.
Most of our idols are addressed and toppled in the sweat of language and razored philosophy, in this
compelling book. Hallelujahs of old, reminiscent of Cohen but more biting. Age and attitude are in your
face, as are the shadows on lunar scars.
In this fearless tackling of topics so proscribed, the reader will find his or her own banned subjects in
mausoleums and traitors, in grief yet humour, allowing our self-inflicted pain of disenchantment,
acknowledging our moth-to-the-flame attractions. Somehow, what really matters in this quixotic life is
intelligently and marvelously expressed in spare but elegant language throughout the book, with a
compelling twist of words and fresh angles of thought. Something disregarded as Carrot tops are
revered: I will hang you on the wall in lieu of crosses / instead of icons of the saints. The contrast of
conditions in which babies of today are birthed is fiercely sad. Many of the dispossessed and barred,
the anathema of our meanness, are met in these pages. Love for plants and animals decorates much
cynicism: nature / finds its way through dark / in the shroud / of a sleeping sun.
We end with an unashamed perspective on so much foolishness and foible that we long to address, yet
usually suppress. Anathema is a great gift, opening the careful shutters to breathe in some cutting,
unfiltered atmosphere, to admit, acknowledge and at last mature, perhaps develop compassion for
ourselves and for all else, and to grasp at second birth / and hope what blossoms / will be kinder. This is
perhaps the antidote for anathema.
The reading of this book may take you through the wringer, but it is incredibly valuable, this wonderfully
enlightening collection by a gifted, eloquent and very brave bard.
Katherine L. Gordon
July 2009
Anathema: Poems Selected & New by Andreas Gripp: Poetry as true,
anti-CanLit and Canadian
from a review and analysis by Conrad DiDiodato, Poet, Teacher, & Literary Critic
Word-Dreamer: Poetics http://didiodatoc.blogspot.com
Gripp's poetry is ... primarily writing that can be appreciated through stylized and meaningful expression,
faithful always to a core of sensible literary values and, above all, to the reader who looks for them in
poetry ... combin[ing] dramatic format, lyricism and allusion and yet despite its "classicism," the most
accessible language, all of which makes for a pretty interesting poetics.
... the affect of reading Anathema can be to find some rather surprising twists to stock literary themes of
nature, death, and the act of writing itself. Gripp is a poet who can expertly disclose all those curious
windings of the imagination at work ...
Gripp, of course, alienates himself from a CanLit verse culture that demands easy-to-get disposable
work. [His] taste is for lyrical expression, balanced phrasing and the infusion of an engaging authorial
presence.
Gripp's language ... reflects an unjust, bizarre and irrational world ... CanLit cannot ignore him without
imperilling itself ... and yet Anathema, a marvellous compendium of every imaginable life-experience,
from joyous to the most tragic in inter-human relations, cannot be assimilated to it.
Conrad DiDiodato
August 2009
Anathema: Poems Selected & New by Andreas Gripp
from a review in Scene Magazine (August 27-September 9, 2009 issue)
... one need not be an academic to write affecting or enduring poetry ... in contrast to the obtuse and
occasionally incomprehensible verse of the over-educated, the poetry of local author Andreas Gripp
takes hold of readers like a beguiling scent, evoking both nostalgia and the transcendence of memory
from the moment it is apprehended. This is poetry of common life, a relatable and lyrical poetry which
propels itself like a song newly sung yet undeniably familiar ... this accessible and profound anthology of
work remains largely unimpeachable, and a shining example of local poetry at its best.
Chris Morgan, Scene Magazine, London, Ontario
August 2009
Reviewed by Katherine L. Gordon
Poet & Columnist, Ancient Heart Magazine (U.K.)
Anathema as a title, suggests the banned and cursed. The gorgeous graphics of the front and back
covers illustrate the concept with the perfection of pathos. The weeping, grief-distraught angel
confronting you and the soil-splattered marble child on the reverse speak of a ruined purity, a doctrine
lost.
Anathema also addresses the daring of this poet to visit emotional corners that most contemporaries
avoid. Andreas Gripp's special signature, as an exciting modern poet, is to lead you trembling into
terrible truths: a book of loss exquisitely delineated by the knife of the poet's language. Lost dreams lurk
despite being shredded in cruel reality. Gripp faces and articulates life's barbed twists, and we cannot
resist the harsh drama that we have experienced and buried so much of, ourselves. He gives us time to
love / a little.
The City exposes urban experience as steamy, fearful yet full: I feel no enmity with it. We become as
rigid shapes: / dried / on canvas snared in Le Fait Accompli, the neutrals of life breaking us bland.
All the flaws of cultural and religious rule that suppress so much natural joy, the anathema of doctrines
denounced, come tantalyzingly alive in these poems: teaching their kids to kiss the trees isn't idolatry /
when we consider the weight of crowns, / of gold and of thorns.
Most of our idols are addressed and toppled in the sweat of language and razored philosophy, in this
compelling book. Hallelujahs of old, reminiscent of Cohen but more biting. Age and attitude are in your
face, as are the shadows on lunar scars.
In this fearless tackling of topics so proscribed, the reader will find his or her own banned subjects in
mausoleums and traitors, in grief yet humour, allowing our self-inflicted pain of disenchantment,
acknowledging our moth-to-the-flame attractions. Somehow, what really matters in this quixotic life is
intelligently and marvelously expressed in spare but elegant language throughout the book, with a
compelling twist of words and fresh angles of thought. Something disregarded as Carrot tops are
revered: I will hang you on the wall in lieu of crosses / instead of icons of the saints. The contrast of
conditions in which babies of today are birthed is fiercely sad. Many of the dispossessed and barred,
the anathema of our meanness, are met in these pages. Love for plants and animals decorates much
cynicism: nature / finds its way through dark / in the shroud / of a sleeping sun.
We end with an unashamed perspective on so much foolishness and foible that we long to address, yet
usually suppress. Anathema is a great gift, opening the careful shutters to breathe in some cutting,
unfiltered atmosphere, to admit, acknowledge and at last mature, perhaps develop compassion for
ourselves and for all else, and to grasp at second birth / and hope what blossoms / will be kinder. This is
perhaps the antidote for anathema.
The reading of this book may take you through the wringer, but it is incredibly valuable, this wonderfully
enlightening collection by a gifted, eloquent and very brave bard.
Katherine L. Gordon
July 2009
Anathema: Poems Selected & New by Andreas Gripp: Poetry as true,
anti-CanLit and Canadian
from a review and analysis by Conrad DiDiodato, Poet, Teacher, & Literary Critic
Word-Dreamer: Poetics http://didiodatoc.blogspot.com
Gripp's poetry is ... primarily writing that can be appreciated through stylized and meaningful expression,
faithful always to a core of sensible literary values and, above all, to the reader who looks for them in
poetry ... combin[ing] dramatic format, lyricism and allusion and yet despite its "classicism," the most
accessible language, all of which makes for a pretty interesting poetics.
... the affect of reading Anathema can be to find some rather surprising twists to stock literary themes of
nature, death, and the act of writing itself. Gripp is a poet who can expertly disclose all those curious
windings of the imagination at work ...
Gripp, of course, alienates himself from a CanLit verse culture that demands easy-to-get disposable
work. [His] taste is for lyrical expression, balanced phrasing and the infusion of an engaging authorial
presence.
Gripp's language ... reflects an unjust, bizarre and irrational world ... CanLit cannot ignore him without
imperilling itself ... and yet Anathema, a marvellous compendium of every imaginable life-experience,
from joyous to the most tragic in inter-human relations, cannot be assimilated to it.
Conrad DiDiodato
August 2009
Anathema: Poems Selected & New by Andreas Gripp
from a review in Scene Magazine (August 27-September 9, 2009 issue)
... one need not be an academic to write affecting or enduring poetry ... in contrast to the obtuse and
occasionally incomprehensible verse of the over-educated, the poetry of local author Andreas Gripp
takes hold of readers like a beguiling scent, evoking both nostalgia and the transcendence of memory
from the moment it is apprehended. This is poetry of common life, a relatable and lyrical poetry which
propels itself like a song newly sung yet undeniably familiar ... this accessible and profound anthology of
work remains largely unimpeachable, and a shining example of local poetry at its best.
Chris Morgan, Scene Magazine, London, Ontario
August 2009
Reader Comments on the poetry of Andreas Gripp, specific poems, and specific books.
I like the human feel in particular in Andreas' work. When I read him, I feel as if he is literally sitting next
to me, talking to me sometimes with cynicism, sometimes with love-longing, and sometimes with corset-
splitting humour.
-- Gina Onyemaechi, poet, England
You are my favourite living poet, no disrespect to all my other favourites because they are dead. I don't
say that lightly, having shelves of poetry books. We won't mention the living writers because it's not fair
to compare when I adore your writings so.
-- Amber Dawn Pullin, photographer & poet, Canada
You are to me the best poet of the century. I have never read a poem of yours I did not like.
-- Karina Klesko, editor & poet, USA
I've always admired in your poetry the respect and compassion you give to your topics, characters,
themes: never the more common pushy word-juggler whose verses serve always as a vehicle for pet
viewpoints & poetry styles, but a poet grounded in the everyday. It's no wonder I (and many others) can
always easily conjure, in a moment, the names of Amy, Dopchek, Veronica: you've made them so
accessible, endearing, and all too real.
-- Conrad DiDiodato, teacher & poet, Canada
Your poetry has an uncommon, common touch: it touches something in each of us, gives us a word, a
phrase, a picture that we can easily relate to. Poetry that does what poetry is meant to do:
communicate! This is quite unlike the language poetry that is becoming more visible all the time, and
which seldom has an identifiable message. There is a richness in phrasing and meaning in your poems
that the language poets have forgotten about. When I tire of the slashing pencils of minimalist editors
and experimental poems that have no apparent meaning, I enjoy ... the inspiration here from you.
-- Carol Stephen, poet, Canada
Re: The Lesser Light (new book release, 2009)
Your book is so dramatically presented, so powerful in the ideas ... breathtaking, the whole concept so
stark with truth and pathos. (The poem) "Fog" is the closest expression I have read of loss and longing.
Your work is becoming very cutting-edge great ... this book is highest quality contemporary writing. So
vulnerable, so human.
-- Katherine L. Gordon, poet & reviewer, Canada
Re: Dr. Lerner's Study Notes, or The Treatise of Cameron King:
This poem is spectacular, Andreas. It is so powerful, so full of force, I am genuinely bowled over by it
and somewhat struck for words. The rhythm and half-rhymes are mesmerizing ... the last line is chilling.
You are one amazing writer.
-- Wendy Mooney, poet, Ireland
Re: Before You Die
I absolutely loved it! Laughing death in the face, talking about things we fear in a way that disarms them.
-- Julia Klimenova, Russia
Re: On Solving The New York Times
The angry energy of your poetry feels like it's just dying to burst out of the words and lines in which it is
contained. What a perfect metaphor the boxes of a crossword puzzle are. Please please please write
more!
-- Ian Blake, USA
Re: The Birth of Lovely Veronica
This is superb writing. The juxtapositions in the first two stanzas are stunning. The entire poem is
breathtaking and powerful.
-- Hugh Cobb, USA
Re: The Birth of Lovely Veronica
The use of repetition in this poem cradles the poem itself, a talisman, a lullaby for the newly born child.
The imagery is startlingly beautiful -- the contrast between the unsullied, womb-like state and the harsh
reality of this shit of a world we live in shocks. A strong, strong poem. Wow.
-- Wendy Mooney, Ireland
Re: Maria the English Major
I find this powerfully evocative, wonderfully flowing and at the same time, demanding. I want to read
more of your poems!
-- Max Reif, USA
Re: Dropping Acid, or Oliver's Awakening at Lee-Anne's Potluck
Andreas, this poem is so cool that I want to marry you !!!!!
-- Wendy Mooney, Ireland
Re: Dopchek, Superintendent
I've read many outstanding poems of yours but this has to be among the best. I'm convinced
you've mastered the art of finding sublimity in the "everyday", in the ordinary "someplaces" of life and
people's lives! If Dopchek is not fictional, you may have just immortalized him in verse. The only other
poem in which I've seen this technique work as brilliantly is in Irving Layton's poem to his mother, "Keine
Lazarovitch". As I've said before about your writing, you are as good as the American Poet Laureate,
Billy Collins.
-- Conrad DiDiodato, Canada
Re: Picking Baby Names with the Toss of a Canadian Quarter
I'm very glad to have Like Darwin Among the Gods in my poetry collection. It's fun to hear your voice in
all its range, from cranky to exalted. One of my faves is "Picking Baby Names with the Toss of a
Canadian Quarter." It's like a quirky, opinionated history of the world as it is at this moment, with a
moving ending, too.
-- Molly Peacock, poet, USA / Canada
Re: And Then There Was Light
This is a beautiful poem, Andreas. The imagery is quite breathtaking. The manner in which the poem is
laid out into one long and two shorter stanzas serves the poem well as the voice of the narrative alters.
The opening line is excellent, preparting the reader for what is to follow. The second stanza (which acts
as a link) is a stroke of genius. A most wonderful poem.
-- Denis Joe, Ireland
Re: Pacifica
I love your writing, Andreas. It is always clear and accessible. I enjoy your turn of phrase and the fluency
and colour of your poems. This is one of your best.
-- Alison Cassidy, Australia
Re: Anathema: Poems Selected & New
I received Anathema yesterday and haven’t been able to put it down. What an accomplishment. You are
such a prolific and intelligent poet, obviously well-read and insightful. The book reveals a cross-section
of themes and subjects (love “Past Life Aggression” and “Franklin Stein”), underscoring the many topics
you’ve contemplated over the years ... and the cover art is stunning.
-- April Bulmer, poet, Canada
I like the human feel in particular in Andreas' work. When I read him, I feel as if he is literally sitting next
to me, talking to me sometimes with cynicism, sometimes with love-longing, and sometimes with corset-
splitting humour.
-- Gina Onyemaechi, poet, England
You are my favourite living poet, no disrespect to all my other favourites because they are dead. I don't
say that lightly, having shelves of poetry books. We won't mention the living writers because it's not fair
to compare when I adore your writings so.
-- Amber Dawn Pullin, photographer & poet, Canada
You are to me the best poet of the century. I have never read a poem of yours I did not like.
-- Karina Klesko, editor & poet, USA
I've always admired in your poetry the respect and compassion you give to your topics, characters,
themes: never the more common pushy word-juggler whose verses serve always as a vehicle for pet
viewpoints & poetry styles, but a poet grounded in the everyday. It's no wonder I (and many others) can
always easily conjure, in a moment, the names of Amy, Dopchek, Veronica: you've made them so
accessible, endearing, and all too real.
-- Conrad DiDiodato, teacher & poet, Canada
Your poetry has an uncommon, common touch: it touches something in each of us, gives us a word, a
phrase, a picture that we can easily relate to. Poetry that does what poetry is meant to do:
communicate! This is quite unlike the language poetry that is becoming more visible all the time, and
which seldom has an identifiable message. There is a richness in phrasing and meaning in your poems
that the language poets have forgotten about. When I tire of the slashing pencils of minimalist editors
and experimental poems that have no apparent meaning, I enjoy ... the inspiration here from you.
-- Carol Stephen, poet, Canada
Re: The Lesser Light (new book release, 2009)
Your book is so dramatically presented, so powerful in the ideas ... breathtaking, the whole concept so
stark with truth and pathos. (The poem) "Fog" is the closest expression I have read of loss and longing.
Your work is becoming very cutting-edge great ... this book is highest quality contemporary writing. So
vulnerable, so human.
-- Katherine L. Gordon, poet & reviewer, Canada
Re: Dr. Lerner's Study Notes, or The Treatise of Cameron King:
This poem is spectacular, Andreas. It is so powerful, so full of force, I am genuinely bowled over by it
and somewhat struck for words. The rhythm and half-rhymes are mesmerizing ... the last line is chilling.
You are one amazing writer.
-- Wendy Mooney, poet, Ireland
Re: Before You Die
I absolutely loved it! Laughing death in the face, talking about things we fear in a way that disarms them.
-- Julia Klimenova, Russia
Re: On Solving The New York Times
The angry energy of your poetry feels like it's just dying to burst out of the words and lines in which it is
contained. What a perfect metaphor the boxes of a crossword puzzle are. Please please please write
more!
-- Ian Blake, USA
Re: The Birth of Lovely Veronica
This is superb writing. The juxtapositions in the first two stanzas are stunning. The entire poem is
breathtaking and powerful.
-- Hugh Cobb, USA
Re: The Birth of Lovely Veronica
The use of repetition in this poem cradles the poem itself, a talisman, a lullaby for the newly born child.
The imagery is startlingly beautiful -- the contrast between the unsullied, womb-like state and the harsh
reality of this shit of a world we live in shocks. A strong, strong poem. Wow.
-- Wendy Mooney, Ireland
Re: Maria the English Major
I find this powerfully evocative, wonderfully flowing and at the same time, demanding. I want to read
more of your poems!
-- Max Reif, USA
Re: Dropping Acid, or Oliver's Awakening at Lee-Anne's Potluck
Andreas, this poem is so cool that I want to marry you !!!!!
-- Wendy Mooney, Ireland
Re: Dopchek, Superintendent
I've read many outstanding poems of yours but this has to be among the best. I'm convinced
you've mastered the art of finding sublimity in the "everyday", in the ordinary "someplaces" of life and
people's lives! If Dopchek is not fictional, you may have just immortalized him in verse. The only other
poem in which I've seen this technique work as brilliantly is in Irving Layton's poem to his mother, "Keine
Lazarovitch". As I've said before about your writing, you are as good as the American Poet Laureate,
Billy Collins.
-- Conrad DiDiodato, Canada
Re: Picking Baby Names with the Toss of a Canadian Quarter
I'm very glad to have Like Darwin Among the Gods in my poetry collection. It's fun to hear your voice in
all its range, from cranky to exalted. One of my faves is "Picking Baby Names with the Toss of a
Canadian Quarter." It's like a quirky, opinionated history of the world as it is at this moment, with a
moving ending, too.
-- Molly Peacock, poet, USA / Canada
Re: And Then There Was Light
This is a beautiful poem, Andreas. The imagery is quite breathtaking. The manner in which the poem is
laid out into one long and two shorter stanzas serves the poem well as the voice of the narrative alters.
The opening line is excellent, preparting the reader for what is to follow. The second stanza (which acts
as a link) is a stroke of genius. A most wonderful poem.
-- Denis Joe, Ireland
Re: Pacifica
I love your writing, Andreas. It is always clear and accessible. I enjoy your turn of phrase and the fluency
and colour of your poems. This is one of your best.
-- Alison Cassidy, Australia
Re: Anathema: Poems Selected & New
I received Anathema yesterday and haven’t been able to put it down. What an accomplishment. You are
such a prolific and intelligent poet, obviously well-read and insightful. The book reveals a cross-section
of themes and subjects (love “Past Life Aggression” and “Franklin Stein”), underscoring the many topics
you’ve contemplated over the years ... and the cover art is stunning.
-- April Bulmer, poet, Canada
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Capsule Reviews for Perennial: Poems Selected & New
Volume 2 (2011)
The cover looks so innocent but screens a garden that holds weeds, compost, detritus, ruins and
warnings. It is a true garden of the human struggle -- the child will see the daisy but the observer
knows the land mines. These are strong poems ... [with] a recently swollen grave-yard that hides the
plague we hide from. I love the confrontation. So many great poems here for me to drink in during the
long winter months facing us. You have matured into a philosopher who tolerates no cover-ups, says
eloquently all the chafes and anguish of human interaction.
Katherine L. Gordon, author of Translating Shadows and Portals (Craigleigh Press)
... He's the lyricist of our nation, determined to give the oftentimes untold stories of personal tragedies
("Alice, Mother", "September 11th"); the conveyor in the most exquisitely personable language of
seasonal wisdoms ("Autumn Green", "Elegy in the eleventh month"); and perhaps among the leading
spokespersons for the reinstatement of the poetic voice in contemporary verses ("Verses", "For every
poet who knows what it's like"). A voice that's been silenced for far too long in the flarf and
conceptualist noise of popular mainstream poetry.
As I've said about significant poetic expression in previous posts, "To be appreciated, whether in
analysis or in the act of reading, the poems have to be clearly 'intuited' as unique expressions of a
single living voice engaged with a variety of significant life-experiences." It's a comment that bears
repeating here in the case of Perennial, a work of lyrical beauty & wisdom.
Conrad DiDiodato, poet, literary critic and teacher (from the "Word-Dreamer" blog)
The latest poems are fresh and vivid, their imagery engaging and memorable.
April Bulmer, author of Black Blooms and The Goddess Psalms (Serengeti Press)
Volume 2 (2011)
The cover looks so innocent but screens a garden that holds weeds, compost, detritus, ruins and
warnings. It is a true garden of the human struggle -- the child will see the daisy but the observer
knows the land mines. These are strong poems ... [with] a recently swollen grave-yard that hides the
plague we hide from. I love the confrontation. So many great poems here for me to drink in during the
long winter months facing us. You have matured into a philosopher who tolerates no cover-ups, says
eloquently all the chafes and anguish of human interaction.
Katherine L. Gordon, author of Translating Shadows and Portals (Craigleigh Press)
... He's the lyricist of our nation, determined to give the oftentimes untold stories of personal tragedies
("Alice, Mother", "September 11th"); the conveyor in the most exquisitely personable language of
seasonal wisdoms ("Autumn Green", "Elegy in the eleventh month"); and perhaps among the leading
spokespersons for the reinstatement of the poetic voice in contemporary verses ("Verses", "For every
poet who knows what it's like"). A voice that's been silenced for far too long in the flarf and
conceptualist noise of popular mainstream poetry.
As I've said about significant poetic expression in previous posts, "To be appreciated, whether in
analysis or in the act of reading, the poems have to be clearly 'intuited' as unique expressions of a
single living voice engaged with a variety of significant life-experiences." It's a comment that bears
repeating here in the case of Perennial, a work of lyrical beauty & wisdom.
Conrad DiDiodato, poet, literary critic and teacher (from the "Word-Dreamer" blog)
The latest poems are fresh and vivid, their imagery engaging and memorable.
April Bulmer, author of Black Blooms and The Goddess Psalms (Serengeti Press)
Review of Ex gratia, a new chapbook by Andreas Gripp (November 2011 release)
Ex gratia is a book Andreas Gripp enjoins us to read as a sequence of poems. It's no surprise to me—
acquainted as I've become, over the past several years, with his style, temperament & sensibilities—
that any selection can give the poetic effect of a whole work just as easily as if it were read on its own.
I think the wonderful interplay of lyricism and language evident in Gripp's poetry in general can't but
tie the particular piece to a single pervading tone. And the tone is a distinctively mournful one from
beginning to end.
Ex gratia is a book of love, loss and mourning but particularly, as its title suggests, a love given
without qualification, perhaps the most tragic of all. Love is lost at the very start, shadowed by a dead
rival and inconsolable grief. Since he's continually faced with both the poet-narrator, in troubadour
fashion, resorts to evoking poetic figures, images of a calming nature and dirge-like refrains of
"letting go" ("Ex gratia") as a means of keeping a relationship alive. To encounter them in Gripp's
chapbook comprises the chief reading pleasure.
Water, the garden soil, flowers, time of year are each a sort of symbolic cross erected by the poet at
each stage of their brief three-year journey. The Charing Cross analogy is not fanciful: there's
something particularly solemn and graceful here, something befitting a nobility of artistic temperament
that leaves lyrical traces to the grieving heart. If Edward's grief was for a real Eleanor of Castile, the
poet's is rather for a love that, even when taken away from him, gives him only more whispering
denials ... a lyricism of love's unfeeling wheel never retold so elegantly and so endearingly.
-- Conrad DiDiodato, Word-Dreamer Blog
Ex gratia is a book Andreas Gripp enjoins us to read as a sequence of poems. It's no surprise to me—
acquainted as I've become, over the past several years, with his style, temperament & sensibilities—
that any selection can give the poetic effect of a whole work just as easily as if it were read on its own.
I think the wonderful interplay of lyricism and language evident in Gripp's poetry in general can't but
tie the particular piece to a single pervading tone. And the tone is a distinctively mournful one from
beginning to end.
Ex gratia is a book of love, loss and mourning but particularly, as its title suggests, a love given
without qualification, perhaps the most tragic of all. Love is lost at the very start, shadowed by a dead
rival and inconsolable grief. Since he's continually faced with both the poet-narrator, in troubadour
fashion, resorts to evoking poetic figures, images of a calming nature and dirge-like refrains of
"letting go" ("Ex gratia") as a means of keeping a relationship alive. To encounter them in Gripp's
chapbook comprises the chief reading pleasure.
Water, the garden soil, flowers, time of year are each a sort of symbolic cross erected by the poet at
each stage of their brief three-year journey. The Charing Cross analogy is not fanciful: there's
something particularly solemn and graceful here, something befitting a nobility of artistic temperament
that leaves lyrical traces to the grieving heart. If Edward's grief was for a real Eleanor of Castile, the
poet's is rather for a love that, even when taken away from him, gives him only more whispering
denials ... a lyricism of love's unfeeling wheel never retold so elegantly and so endearingly.
-- Conrad DiDiodato, Word-Dreamer Blog