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Mike O'Connor

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Immortality Paperback – September 15, 2010

by Mike O'Connor (Author)

4.3 2 ratings

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Poetry. The poems of Immortality fall into three sections: "Immortality," "Icarus," and "American Spirit." The title poem--a long innovative work that first appeared in Narrative Magazine--weaves together several stories drawing on biography, history, and myth. The stories: a poet who seeks lasting fame (Ezra Pound); a warrior who seeks a place in history through conquest (Emperor Julian); and a young girl who seeks Taoist immortality (Mei-li). The primary narrative is recited by a poet of the T'ang Dynasty, over tea with his former Zen master. "Icarus" is an experimental poem that describes, in fragments and surreal imagery, the poet's experience of disorientation in returning after several years to an Asian city that was once his home, a city he discovered to be undergoing tumultuous environmental and infrastructural change. And "American Spirit," the last section of the book, is a series of poems focusing on the poet's friends and local landscapes.

Editorial Reviews

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This collection begins with reality and mythos blended with lyrical artistry into the narratives of three people from across time. From there it journeys into biographical areas reflecting, once again, the enduring mixture of reality and myth present in the poet s own experiences. This work by the distinguished poet, translator, and writer Mike O Connor is literary artistry woven into its purest and uncompromising best. --Irving Warner

About the Author

Mike O'Connor, born in Aberdeen, Washington, is a poet, writer, and translator of Chinese literature. For 12 years, he farmed and worked in the woods before pursuing Chinese studies and a journalism career in Asia for fifteen years. He is the author of nine books of poetry, translation, and memoir. His most recent publications include IMMORTALITY (2010) and UNNECESSARY TALKING: THE MONTESANO STORIES (2009), both from Pleasure Boat Studio. O'Connor is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2003-4); an International Writers' Workshop Fellowship, Hong Kong, (2006); and a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship (2009). He currently serves as publisher of Empty Bowl Press in Port Townsend, a writers' co-operative, and caretakes forest land on the Big Quilcene River.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pleasure Boat Studio; First Edition (September 15, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1929355696
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1929355693
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.25 x 8.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,195,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #44,004 in American Poetry (Books)

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Mike O'Connor

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(Thomas) Mike O'Connor, a native of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, is a poet, writer, and translator of Chinese literature. Beginning in the 1970s, he engaged in farming and forest work, followed by a journalism career in Asia. He is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature, an International Writers' Workshop Fellowship (Hong Kong), and a Washington State Artist Trust Fellowship. He has published ten books, including poetry, translation and memoir.

The author lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

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zacapoet

4 Stars Compared To Dante

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2021

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Incredibly humane poetry by a deeply decent, humane poet.
This book teaches. Poetry, the Tao, ethics.
It saddens me to hear that Mike O'Connor passed recently, but he surely learned how to 'grasp emptiness'.
And teaches us the same.

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Elaine

Poetry worthy of immortality

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2011

I love Mike O'Connor's latest collection of poetry, Immortality. It's full of mystery, beauty, and variety - a feast for the mind and heart. An appealing feature in the title poem enters at the outset with an instance of fresh surprise: the normal boundaries of time and space do not apply here. Instead, there's a confluence of historical periods - a fitting twist to the concept of immortality which is not linear.

The whole poem is being told by a poet in the T'ang Dynasty to his Zen Master. There are three characters, each seeking immortality in different ways: 20th Century Ezra Pound, through his work; Domitus a Roman soldier following his Emperor-warrior, through his conquests; Immortality and the Taoist 15-year-old girl Mei-li, through her faith. Their stories unfold each in turn, revolving and advancing, at times with a pleasing overlap of images making a seamless segue, e.g. a window in one scene (and century) becomes a window in another.

The variety in O'Connor's writing styles, reflecting his broad range of interests and artistry, is engaging. His own poetry reveals the influence on him of the Buddhist poetry he has translated, to high acclaim. But it also comes in different flavors: Beat style poetry being just one of them.

In the Preface to Icarus, O'Connor shares the story of his having imitated Allen Ginsberg's "Beat" style when he was 15. In this poem O'Connor plays with variations on the theme - responses to the haunting question he raised from his encounter and exchange with Ginsberg - "Does it mean anything?" They are provocative.

Part III regales us with delectable fare - O'Connor's own American Spirit. In an altogether modern tone, his language is fresh and earthy.
To mention just a few, though they're all worth the read - In On the Road to Denver in a Coat & Tie Disguise, we get a glimpse, not without humor as the title suggests, of two of many sides of China. Moreover, it concludes with one of those threads of ancient wisdom O'Connor likes to weave in, throughout his collection: "You're all a band of angels / in a leaking boat at sea."

There's an ebullience in O'Connor's poetry, e.g. in Soliloquy of the Danish Cloister and Sailing to Keystone. From his past and current forest work which made his senses keen, we can share his clear-eyed view in Dry Spring Above the Duckabush - "waterfalls incise the slopes" and "falls fluming through the trees - / a white flame in a darkened wood" and "jig-aw patches of old snow."

"The Humanist" in memory of his old ailing professor whose philosophy he captures, is tender. Seeing Off Red Pine Returning to Taipei offers a pleasing contrast of "there" and "here" on either side of the same sea.

Immortality is about "the way" It opens with two Chinese poems O'Connor translated which enfold his own title poem in Part I - "Looking for Immortals" and "Farewell to a Palace Lady Entering the Way." And it ends with a poem of stunning beauty, his own - Dawn on Jade Mountain (Yushan e.g."This is the realm before thought - expansiveness and fragrant air!" The poem's end hints at a mystical final entry which beckons, mirroring the Taoist's - Mei-li's - own entry into immortality. Five key stanzas from the title poem in Part I are copied on the back cover, next to the Jade Mountain poem. It's like another secret for the perceptive reader to discover.

I predict, as happened to me re-reading Immortality, the reader will find in it living kernels that will sprout new life. This book deserves and rewards rereading to unearth its hidden treasures. As reviewers have recognized in Mike O'Connor's other books, e.g. in When I Find You Again, It Will Be In Mountains, - this poetry collection is the work of a flawless craftsman. It's a poetry collection worthy of immortality. I know I will return to it.