Gondwana

Gondwana: an ancient supercontinent long-dispersed into fragments in the Southern Hemisphere. Contemplating this once-massive landmass at the the end of the world while looking out at the ethereal blue ice of Antarctica, Nathaniel Tarn writes: “They said back then / there was a frozen continent / in those high latitudes encircling the globe: /are you moving toward it?” The various parts of Gondwana cohere into a unified whole that celebrates bird flight, waves, and innervating light while warning against environmental calamity. Some poems celebrate the New Mexican desert as it becomes a place of protest against the invasion of Afghanistan; in another, the rising and falling stairs at Fez in Morocco meld into a meditation on marriage, empire, and the origins of climbing. Elsewhere the heroic fighter pilot Lydia Litvyak is personified as Eurydice speaking to her Captain as Orpheus; and in the final long section, “Exitus Generis Humani,” lines pour over the reader in slow, mournful, yet often humorous, song, revealing “the poets’ hearts are a world’s heart” as the human race ends and whole armies sink into the earth “yearning for mother love.” Celebrated as a poet where “inquiry and ethical action are imperative” (Joseph Donahue, Jacket2), Nathaniel Tarn has lifted up a mind-heart mirror of our contemporary existence in Gondwana and warns us of a definitive ending if we do not demand radical change.  

Gondwana: un supercontinent stravechi dispersat indelungat in fragmente din emisfera sudica. Contempland aceasta masa terestra odinioara masiva la sfarsitul lumii, in timp ce privea spre gheata eterica albastra din Antarctica, Nathaniel Tarn scrie: „Au spus atunci / ca exista un continent inghetat / in acele latitudini inalte care inconjoara globul: / sunt te indrepti spre el? ” Diferitele parti ale Gondwana adera intr-un intreg unificat care sarbatoreste zborul pasarilor, valurile si lumina inervanta, in timp ce avertizeaza impotriva calamitatii mediului.