The Glass Age

"One of the most assured voices in contemporary poetry."-Library Journal

The post-impressionist Pierre Bonnard painted, among other things, dozens of paintings of windows. Starting there, this extended poem-part art criticism, part history-considers the phenomenon of glass, revealing the strength and fragility of our age in the minimalist style that has won Cole Swensen such acclaim.

From "The Open Window":

Photography replaced the river, which, due to
unexpected complications, resulted in the Great Age
of the Train. Bonnard started photographing just as
the snapshot became possible. Glass negatives gave
way to strips of film, and the river froze, intact. In
shadow and light, the Seine, said Marthe, standing in
the garden, frame after frame. We are multiplying the
things we can and do see through.