The Gathering Eye

$19.95

by Tina Barr

The world gathered and filtered by a single incisive lens — poet Tina Barr. The Gathering Eye looks at the psychic wounds of childhood and looks also at the emotional status of women in the Middle East and in China. Dramatic similarities rise up in these poems which explore sensuality and violence, and reflect on women as subjects. Women in fairy tales, as Cretan bull dancers, concubines, carpet weavers or crack victims are all revealed anew. A romantic vision of the Orient stands in contrast to the reality of poverty. The fusion of sexuality and mayhem.

by Tina Barr

The world gathered and filtered by a single incisive lens — poet Tina Barr. The Gathering Eye looks at the psychic wounds of childhood and looks also at the emotional status of women in the Middle East and in China. Dramatic similarities rise up in these poems which explore sensuality and violence, and reflect on women as subjects. Women in fairy tales, as Cretan bull dancers, concubines, carpet weavers or crack victims are all revealed anew. A romantic vision of the Orient stands in contrast to the reality of poverty. The fusion of sexuality and mayhem.

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About the Author

The landscape of Tina Barr’s childhood on the north shore of Long Island, with its harbors, beaches, and suburban sixties plenty, colors the background of some of her poems. It was there she negotiated the death of her younger brother, her father’s emotional instability, her mother’s depression. She explored alternative modes of being, through her sexuality and through experiences outside the cage of social expectations.

Poetry is the vehicle Barr used to order and confront repressed knowledge. Travel in the world mirrored her inward road. Time spent in Egypt, along with an ongoing interest in ancient history, religion, art and myth is reflected in her work.

Tina Barr received her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, her MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts in New York in 1982, and her MA (1987) and PhD (1995) degrees in English from Temple University in Philadelphia. Tina Barr’s third book, Green Target, won the Barrow Street Press Book Prize (2018) and her second, Kaleidoscope, was published by Iris Press in 2015.

Advanced Praise

“These are eloquent narrative poems of great power, passion, and beauty. …A long time coming, this book is a treasure. Bravo!” —Clarence Major

“These daring poems — by turns ferocious, opulent, combustible, delicate — undertake many projects. They testify to brutalities visited upon body and spirit, trace the jagged shapes of past terrain, and, in the book’s lush middle section, ‘Red Land, Black Land,’ investigate the complicated sensuality of contemporary Egypt.

Daughter, sister, lover, foreigner — however refracted, Tina Barr’s vision is steadfast: actual things make the world, and she honors their profusion at every turn. Infused with both spririt and intention, these poems embody their deepest belief: ‘all that is outside can also be woven in.’” —Lia Purpura

The Georgia Review (Volume LIX, number 3, Fall 2005) features a review of Tina Barr’s The Gathering Eye.

The Gathering Eye is reviewed in the Water-Stone Review. Read an excerpt.

The Hayden’s Ferry Review gave a very favorable critique of The Gathering Eye. You can find an excerpt here.

Format: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-932195-07-1