My new book!
wherein I use my Substack for shameless self-promotion
While it’s true that I do have two books which fit the theme of this site (look below!), the bulk of my self-publishing is poetry and plays. Today I announce my newest collection—to my own surprise!
While catching up with a dear West Coast friend a month ago, I explained what I was working on but lamented that it would probably be in process for another year. And yet, a week ago, I suddenly realized that my poetry collection was actually already finished! And here it is: Horizon of Incomprehension!
What we call total darkness is never really total. Our eyes catch heat energy. Our nerves are constantly firing. Our brain is always working to translate those signals into sight. And what we see is eigengrau, or “intrinsic light.” True black is only perceivable by the contrast of bright light. Without it, our eyes are biologically unable to see anything darker than eigengrau.
One of those words that can’t quite be translated into English, werden (as far as I am able to understand it) is a verb about an event that is in the act of happening. In many Rilke translations, it is rendered as “to ripen”—a teleological progress perceived in the moment. It has seven separate uses and can speak about the future and the past, the certain and the probable, as well as being used as a command. I think of it as akin to sanctification: we are actively moving toward our certain future state and yet always in the present process (which can only be probable).
Horizon of Incomprehension is structured around these two words, which I can only not-quite-know. It is about our status in becoming, our not-quite-blindness as we look from this now at the past and the future. It is about possibility and guarantee and the never-absence of light. It is about looking towards what we can see but darkly. It is about one man’s becoming, frozen in the moment of movement.
I am also pleased to announce that my other books have been updated/upgraded! Now printed on groundwood paper for a more sustainable and luxurious product, all of my books now feature a brand-new author picture and updated bio! And that’s not all! Most of them are also now available for the first time in hardcover editions!
While Amazon does not deal fairly with authors of professionally published work, I have found their self-publishing program quite good. Therefore, you can purchase all of the following books on your local Amazon site.
ALSO BY BRETT ALAN DEWING
TRANSLATION
The Book of Hours: a new poetic translation for devotional use
CRITICISM
Wednesday, Tuesday: works of and about art
I Too Once Thought…: problematizing identity and ordering the so-called chaos in Alanis Morissette’s Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
PROSE
Mornings When I Wake
PLAYS
The Burden Against the Wilderness of the Sea
If I Had a Hammer: a new play
An Intricate Unity: a play
The Water Cycle: a play
POETRY
Have You Not Heard?
Take, Eat, Remember, and Believe
Reliquaries
the beginning of the blood: Christmas and Advent poems
Horizon of Incomprehension
Check out all the goodies at my Amazon Author Page!
