"Carver's poetry is like an almost invisible strand of fishing line reeling us all together, connecting us by the heart." --San Franci...
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Jul 14, 2008
Baiocco
rated it: 
I read one Raymond Carver story called Cathedral recommended by my friend Jason and it kicked ass. It was about an aloof alcoholic whose wife invites over an old friend of her younger years who happens to be blind. It was terrific.
I don't like reading too many short stories by the same writer that are terrific because my expectations get too high and they usually turn out to all be terrific in the same way, a way probably unknown and unintened by the author, but a way nonetheless a More...
I don't like reading too many short stories by the same writer that are terrific because my expectations get too high and they usually turn out to all be terrific in the same way, a way probably unknown and unintened by the author, but a way nonetheless a More...
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Nov 03, 2011
William Thomas
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God damn you, Raymond Carver. You spent time with Haruki Murakami when your books were selling better in Japan than America. Because the Japanese were infatuated by the deep roots of shame in your work, and we were too scared of how it made us feel. You spent time with Bukowski when he had money and threw it around like a man who understood how ephemeral it was. You were the best and no one knew it until you were dead. I love you, Raymond Carver. The same way I love my dad, like a god, untouchab
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Jan 11, 2012
Michael
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Raymond Carver is perhaps the most under-appreciated poet of the post-modern world. Known almost exclusively as a short story writer, even the might Norton Anthology does not mention his work as a poet. Carver was as good a poet as he was a fiction writer, and this collection contains pretty much all of his poems.
Spare, stark, and honest, Carver's work perhaps is neglected because it is so accessible. But don't let that fool you. This is art. Great art on supposedly artless subjects, l More...
Spare, stark, and honest, Carver's work perhaps is neglected because it is so accessible. But don't let that fool you. This is art. Great art on supposedly artless subjects, l More...
Aug 26, 2009
Dao
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Your Dog Dies
You Don't Know What Love Is (an evening with Charles Bukowski)
The Mailman as Cancer Patient
The Ashtray
Still Looking Out for Number One
Next Year
Energy
Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In
My Boat
Plus
Reading Something in the Restaurant
The Author of Her Misfortune
The Possible
An Account
Waiting
Left off the highway and
down the hill. At the
bottom, hang another left.
More...
You Don't Know What Love Is (an evening with Charles Bukowski)
The Mailman as Cancer Patient
The Ashtray
Still Looking Out for Number One
Next Year
Energy
Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In
My Boat
Plus
Reading Something in the Restaurant
The Author of Her Misfortune
The Possible
An Account
Waiting
Left off the highway and
down the hill. At the
bottom, hang another left.
More...
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Nov 02, 2008
Paul
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I don't read much poetry, but I really enjoyed this collection. I much more enjoyed the earlier collections -- Fires and Where Water Comes Together with Other Water. By the time you get to Ultramarine, and then especially in A New Path to the Waterfall, Carver has abandoned the fishing streams and trailer parks that make his work accessible, touching, and human, and has begun to focus on higher subjects, like Greek mythology, Chekhov, and, especially, dying. The final collection is incredibly sa
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Dec 28, 2007
W.B.
rated it:
I know it's hip to hate him and now with the Lish melodrama going on, he's even more tarnished I suppose. But I've always been a big fan of the writing even with its uneven quality. The poems are often despised for their prosoid, talky, confessionalist New Yorker qualities...there are some like that in here but the vast majority strike me as successful transpositions of a particular school of Russian poetry into English. He's very Russian for an American. I think he was trying to write up to Ch
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Jan 04, 2012
Joan L
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Re-reading carver stirs up so much heart, wisdom, loss, hope, and all the rest. I miss him --- find myself wishing he was still here and writing. These poems have me determined to read again his stories --- and to read them in the Carver version that was re-released a few years ago (as opposed to the earlier published versions of the stories that had been edited so fiercely by Gordon Lish).
Dec 15, 2008
Duc
rated it: 
Ultramarine is the most memorable section of this book.
There is a poem about looking at an amputated leg on the surgery table that is vivid. Carver had a job as a janitor at that surgery suite so he wrote a poem about it.
There is another poem that mentions M.F.K Fisher which lead me to The Gastronomical Me
Also the sense of the North West and fishing is pleasant. The imagines of Milk and Roe of the salmon seems to have said something about creativity.
There is a poem about looking at an amputated leg on the surgery table that is vivid. Carver had a job as a janitor at that surgery suite so he wrote a poem about it.
There is another poem that mentions M.F.K Fisher which lead me to The Gastronomical Me
Also the sense of the North West and fishing is pleasant. The imagines of Milk and Roe of the salmon seems to have said something about creativity.
Aug 24, 2010
Juan Luis
rated it:
Lo tuve en mis manos hace 4 años, creo. Y no me lo llevé. Hoy se ha sentado conmigo en el sillón, y he charlado con Ray como charlan dos colegas. Porque esa es la sensación que transmite.
Apasionante, duro, conmovedor, desequilibrante e histórico. Una técnica compositiva cuidada y mimada al mínimo punto y coma.
Fantástico. Fuerte. Genial.
Apasionante, duro, conmovedor, desequilibrante e histórico. Una técnica compositiva cuidada y mimada al mínimo punto y coma.
Fantástico. Fuerte. Genial.
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Jun 24, 2010
Megan
rated it:
I'm not finished with this book yet, but I already know without a doubt that it gets a perfect score. I'm even breaking my rule against rating the book before I finish it, a practice my linear sensibility finds distasteful. I guess it makes sense that it is a book of poetry to pull me away from the careful mental boundaries and boxes I construct for myself.
Here is a taste of Carver's absolute gorgeousness. This poem, included in this volume, has long been a dear favorite of mine-- More...
Here is a taste of Carver's absolute gorgeousness. This poem, included in this volume, has long been a dear favorite of mine-- More...
Dec 28, 2010
Matt
rated it:
I've been nursing this collection of Carver's poetry for quite awhile now, and I'm glad I did. Like many others, on balance I prefer his prose to his poetry, but this collection demonstrates that he wrote some excellent poems, too. He has a simple, straightforward style that carries a lot of strength, and some of these poems are among my favorites I have read by recent poets. Not all the poems are excellent, but some are and most of the collection is at least good. The final few poems, writ
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Jan 07, 2011
David
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Although I love Ray's stories, his poems are just as good but unfortunately, less read. The chance to write about your mortality while still alive, reflecting on the end of your life and career while still living... that's really something.
Aug 31, 2010
Jean
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I have not read all of the poems in this book but most of the ones that I have read are outstanding. A few of my favorites are
My Daughter and Apple Pie
The Party
Happiness in Cornwall
The Window
My Daughter and Apple Pie
The Party
Happiness in Cornwall
The Window
Aug 02, 2011
Nick
rated it:
I'll be honest- I only made it about 90 pages into this collection before I stopped reading. I didn't really connect with Carver through his poems in any meaningful way, so i quit reading.
Dec 10, 2009
Chris
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I liked the 'Shortcuts' film so thought I'd give this a go. Whoa. Wasn't expecting such raw and intense memory and emotion in these prose poems. Achingly beautiful. Will investigate more of his work now I think.
Jul 03, 2008
Shaindel
rated it:
I don't remember if I've made it all the way through this poetry collection or not; I'm better at remembering individual volumes rather than collected works.
Carver is a master of the line break that same way that Bukowski was. Sometimes, the words may seem mundane, but it's the line breaks that can break your heart every time. I'm in love with the poem "Luck"--in LOVE with it. A lot of times I'll read it to beginning poetry students as an example of how poetry is writing w More...
Carver is a master of the line break that same way that Bukowski was. Sometimes, the words may seem mundane, but it's the line breaks that can break your heart every time. I'm in love with the poem "Luck"--in LOVE with it. A lot of times I'll read it to beginning poetry students as an example of how poetry is writing w More...
Jun 07, 2011
M.
rated it:
Pretty much unnoticed masterpiece. I wrote a review that covered this book as well as four others. You can find it here:
http://hubpages.com/hub/FiveBestNewBooks...
http://hubpages.com/hub/FiveBestNewBooks...
Dec 21, 2008
Joshua
rated it:
wish i could hang with ray. these poems aren't polished, but neither was he. they are beautiful, many of them, and i feel lucky to have them on my shelf. he was especially gifted at closing the deal, and putting a final emphasis on his thoughts.
Jan 18, 2011
Jim Pascual Agustin
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This is one of the few books that I return to when the world grows too dark. A proper review will have to follow one day.
Jan 15, 2011
Neil
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Ray Carver's poems, like his stories, are so intimate and personal I get embarrassed reading some of them.
Jan 19, 2012
Jonathan
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Love the tender, observant spirit, though I'd rather read a good selection of his poetry.
Feb 05, 2012
Zara
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Carver is a minimalist, where his words are neither flashy nor eloquent, but his poems, like his stories are succinct with feeling. He speaks of raw hardships with a gruff demeanour and tone, but sentimentality runs through each context from pondering the rain, being driven to madness by a lover, to the finality and cost of a father’s death. You will read through the pages easily—not because the subject is light or fond—but because Carver will not woo you into believing his fantasies, but show y
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Dec 22, 2010
Thank you, Jaime, for sharing this book with me--I love the intro by Tess Gallagher who I didn't know was his wife. I love her affirmation, "He is a poet of great suppleness of being, and his ability to hold contraries in balance while sorting out their ramifications, not oversubscribing to either side, amounts to courage for us all." And then "He also knew...that poetry isn't simply reticence served up for what we meant to say. It's a place to be ample and grateful, to make room
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Jan 14, 2010
Marino
rated it: 
I really don't like Carver's style in poetry so I rated this book with a low grade
Jul 21, 2011
I last read these poems in Glasgow, in 1997. Time to have another look.
Sep 23, 2008
Patrick
rated it:
Carver as a poet is a mixed bag. Some of the short narratives are excellent and the poems about his alcoholism are straightforward and true, still I had trouble with about half the poems as poems. Is compression the only requirement for a poem to be a poem post-1970? Here's where the criticism of contemporary poetry as cut up prose gets a display. About half the poems are what Harold Bloom would condescendingly call "very sincere". The book overall is redeemed by some of the finer poem
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Mar 12, 2010
TQ-tip
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The lines of Carver's poems pour down the page like clear fresh water. Simple poems with hidden emotional dynamite.
Sep 18, 2009
Barbara
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I connected to Carvers shortstories in the late 80s early 90s, but later with the poetry and after he died , the collected poems boardened my sense of the writer and what and who he wrote about. I understood his cultural and economic strata. It was my own.
Jan 12, 2009
Rómulo
rated it:
Sus poemas son una corriente, un manantial, que fluye bajo sus relatos... un agua menos turbia.
