false 139786 2 The poems in Robert Hass's new collection&#8212;his first to appear in a decade&#8212;are grounded in the beauty and energy of the physical world, and in the bafflement of the present moment in American culture. This work is breathtakingly immediate, stylistically varied, redemptive, and wise. His familiar landscapes are here&#8212;San Francisco, the Northern California coast, the Sierra high country&#8212;in addition to some of his oft-explored themes: art; the natural world; the nature of desire; the violence of history; the power and limits of language; and, as in his other books, domestic life and the conversation between men and women. New themes emerge as well, perhaps: the essence of memory and of time. The works here look at paintings, at Gerhard Richter as well as Vermeer, and pay tribute to his particular literary masters, friend Czes&#322;aw Mi&#322;osz, the great Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer, Horace, Whitman, Stevens, Nietszche, and Lucretius. We are offered glimpses of a surpris­ingly green and vibrant twenty-first-century Berlin; of the demilitarized zone between the Koreas; of a Bangkok night, a Mexican desert, and an early summer morning in Paris, all brought into a vivid present and with a passionate meditation on what it is and has been to be alive. "It has always been Mr. Hass's aim," the <i>New York Times Book Review</i> wrote, "to get the whole man, head and heart and hands and every­thing else, into his poetry." Every new volume by Robert Hass is a major event in poetry, and this beautiful collection is no exception. </p> 134751 1 10 2007 Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005 total:335|5:103|4:135|3:65|2:27|1:5| 335 1309 524 65 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:53:27 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:53:27 -0800 2009 Robert Hass, poet laureate of the United States between 1995 and 1997 and author of the popular Poet's Choice newspaper column, surprised critics with his fifth collection of verse. As eloquent and inventive as in his previous collections, here Hass for the first time tackles public and private issu...

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The nature part is easy. Bob has a gi...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 20 09:27:50 -0800 2007 Tue Jan 29 14:31:50 -0800 2008
This book is well deserving of the many awards it's garnered recently, and although it took Hass 8 years to write the poems gathered here, it seems worth the time it took.

Some of his previous concerns with the failure of language (as in "Meditation at Laguinita...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jul 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 29 01:02:35 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 31 01:17:45 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 09:36:41 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 09:42:33 -0800 2008 1.5 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Nov 24 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 14:41:59 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 05:36:49 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Jan 12 10:54:09 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 12 10:54:09 -0800 2008
Has has a rare combination of humanism, humility, and a willingness to push formally against the bounds of poetry. He has poems that go from a nipple to Eastern philosophy to ... the poems are cont...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 23:47:26 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 10:28:14 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Aug 01 22:43:35 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 23:25:48 -0700 2009
The cover is the...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 18 18:53:48 -0800 2008 Fri Mar 27 07:08:36 -0700 2009
Hass, on the other...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Dec 30 16:48:13 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 16:48:59 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Jun 29 14:27:23 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 29 14:30:28 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Mon Feb 02 07:42:56 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 07:44:20 -0800 2009
Greatest author photo ever?

I feel like all would be right with the world if everyone received a hug from Bob every morning. I love this man. ]]> 5 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 13 07:00:07 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 24 16:09:38 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jan 08 07:31:28 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 08 07:32:49 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 08 11:18:50 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 08 11:18:56 -0800 2008 After reading the book, I was very curious to others' reactions at goodreads. There were several posters who commented on the book within the context of Hass' previous work. Not having read Hass before Time and Materials, I was mystified about the buzz.

The book did not live up to ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=139786