In the Quick of Time
Poems
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
on the high wire
no net below
in real time
between two eternities
take a step
inhale the future
another step
exhale the past
pulse no pause
go, go
breath no pause
now, now
in the quick of time
step a step
surge
no net below
go, go
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Book Details
About the Book
In his essay “The Poetry of the Present,” D. H. Lawrence states, “The quivering nimble hour of the present, this is the quick of Time … The quick of the universe is the pulsating, carnal self, mysterious and palpable.”
In the Quick of Time echoes Lawrence’s placement of the writer in time, and the poems of this collection strive to catch the fullness of a self at once “mysterious and palpable.” These verses speak of tensions that reflect the planet we all inhabit while they revel in art’s playful reordering of the found world. Irony and ellipsis abound in these pages, along with a passion for rhyme, alliteration, and imagery. In keeping with the self’s mutability, the collection offers a variety of poetic forms, some as classic as the sonnet and others as contemporary as graphic verse.
This collection of poetry engages the human struggle with time, explores the flux of identity, and considers various conflicts of our world.
About the Author
Dru Dougherty was born and raised in Helena, Montana, in the aftermath of World War II. He attended Hamilton College and earned a PhD in Romance languages at Harvard University. For the next forty years, he taught modern Spanish literature at the University of California–Berkeley. He is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles, and currently lives in Berkeley, California.