At Ravenna it is, in our little way, as we roll out another book, “Variations in an Emergency” by Anne Lovering Rounds, winner of the 2014 Cathlamet Prize for Poetry.
The slim, pocket-sized book is well-dressed with an image by Robert Motherwell and distantly inspired by the structure of “The Goldberg Variations” by Bach. Filled with musical and New York references, its lyrics explore longing and the musical repeat of loss and desire. An example:
Phase music variation
two loops two trains
b d f v when did I stop
playing the typewriter if
I am not playing how
will I keep you