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Nostalgia's Thread: Ten Poems on Norman Rockwell Paintings
Randall R. Freisinger
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>> Shipping & Download Information >> About our E-Books "A classic American subject, rendered here with passion and immediacy." —Patricia Hampl, author, The Florist's Daughter Accessible and engaging, the poems in Randall R. Freisinger's Nostalgia's Thread are provocative reconsiderations of the American experience as depicted in ten of Norman Rockwell's best known paintings. Arguably the only serious collection of poems inspired by Norman Rockwell's images, they were conceived just prior to the attacks of September 11, 2001, and written in their wake. These poems remind us that visual art is never static, the beholder's eye never innocent. They bear witness to the fact that each cultural era must inevitably reinterpret its rich artistic inheritance within the context of its current collective experience. The publication of Nostalgia's Thread coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Norman Rockwell Museum as well as recent critical reappraisals of Rockwell's as an illustrator and artist. These poems, in keeping with the venerable, centuries-old tradition of ekphrasis, give eloquent voice to Rockwell's art, but they refuse to remain fixed within the paintings' frames. Instead, the poems explore alternative narratives, setting aside simplistic readings of the images and opening them up to a more nuanced response. With unflinching honesty and deep compassion, these poems present a personal and collective past which is both comforting and disturbing, both "nostalgia's thread" and "the barbed wire / of memory." Advance Praise For Nostalgia's Thread“I believed—before reading these wonderful poems—that I knew a thing or two about nostalgia. About how ‘a painting invites you to step into/its frame and complete the story…’ Which Randall Freisinger does. And, as with all essential ‘telling,’ this collection reverberates in ways so wholly unanticipated that I hauled out the art books, enchanted, really, by the remarkable transformation that had just occurred. Freisinger is a poet of insight and originality, and this is one terrific read!” —Jack Driscoll, author, How Like an Angel “The poem ‘Freedom of Speech (1943)’ alone is worth holding onto this small book forever... Other readers might say the same of any other poem here, each one a song to the tough, sweet, enjoyable, and painful battles of our lives. Read this. Freisinger’s lyricism, narrative drive, and wit of language make sure we understand that this book is less an art critique than it is a literary tour de force.” —Robert Stewart, editor, New Letters About the AuthorNostalgia's Thread is Randall R. Freisinger's third chapbook-length collection of poetry. His two previous chapbooks are Hand Shadows (Green Tower Press, 1988) and Running Patterns, which won the Flume Press Chapbook Award in 1985. His full-length book, Plato's Breath, won the May Swenson Poetry Award from Utah State University Press in 1996. His poems have appeared for over forty years in numerous literary magazines and anthologies and have been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize. He is Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric, Literature, and Creative Writing at Michigan Technological University and lives with his wife, Jill Burkland, on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Upper Michigan. |
20th-century, American, Fall 09, Norman Rockwell 
Reader Comments (1)
I anxiousy await the arrival of October!