Books/ STEREOPTICON
"Here is a jeweler peering through her loupe at the hard edges and dazzlement of the daily.” —Jack Myers
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Stereopticon is Pamela Harrison’s first full-length collection. The cool elegance of her poems does not signify a detachment from their subjects but instead a cold, probing eye into their deep interiors. As with the stereopticon of her book’s title, no dimension of her poetic subjects escapes Harrison’s gaze.
REVIEWS "On the cards slipped into the old stereopticons were two separate images that were supposed to merge as you adjusted your eyes. Pamela Harrison infuses this metaphorical idea with the unique wisdom of her experiences in her rich collection of poems.... Stanza by stanza she shows us how each moment is alive with the past and present, the cloaked and the revealed. The whole book shines with this blended magic…." —Molly Peacock "The accuracy of her images, the sharpness of her senses, her acute and inclusive observation earn our confidence. Specifically and gravely, Ms. Harrison has rendered wide-ranging, profound experiences into poems that fulfill a need in her listeners…they feel themselves changed by her song." —Sydney Lea "In Stereopticon, Pamela Harrison proves, as she says in one of her poems, that ‘Some kinds of knowledge change all the rules of sight’—for the knowledge revealed here, in writing that is as economical as it is graceful, as unstintingly honest as it is imaginative, enriches and deepens the landscape of the inner life…." —Gray Jacobik "There is nothing soft and blurry or merely decorative about the deeply etched, beautifully wrought poems in Pamela Harrison’s Stereopticon. Here is a jeweler peering through her loupe at the hard edges and dazzlement of the daily. And she has a god’s eye view." —Jack Myers "While the blurbs for this book note the “knowledge” and unique wisdom” in Harrison’s poems, as I went through poem after poem, I was more struck by their cumulative effect—wisdom not as a quality, but as a process; not simply a noun, but a verb as well." —Carl P. Rosenstock, Amazon Review Read full review (PDF)> "With its wealth of visions linking delight and disturbance, Stereopticon insists on a point of view that is both satisfying and unsettling, like needful change or passionate love. Like the trick our eyes must learn to use its eponymous device, Harrison’s poems can change the way we see. They talk about perceiving opportunities for joy, but also about making adjustments for the sake of mere survival." —William Craig, Valley News Read full review (PDF)> |
LISTEN
Pamela Harrison reads her work: "So, Caravaggio"
"Stereopticon"
"Winter Solstice"
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