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Special Orders: Poems
In Special Orders, the renowned poet Edward Hirsch brings us a new series of tightly crafted poems, work that demonstrates a thrilling expansion of his tone and subject matter. It is with a mixture of grief and joy that Hirsch examines what he calls “the minor triumphs, the major failures” of his life so far, in lines that reveal a startling frankness in the man composing ...more
Hardcover, 80 pages
Published
March 11th 2008
by Knopf
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(showing
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Meh. Hirsch's style is direct, unaffected, and unadorned, and some of these poems have a resonance. On the whole though, there is far too little of the startling and/or revelatory for me. I want poetry that shocks me with unimaginable images, poetry that peels back the simple surface to expose the unexpected. This ain't that poetry. That said, we seem to have the same feelings about my hometown.
To Houston
My brash, impolitic, overdeveloped city,
my oil-stained co...more
To Houston
My brash, impolitic, overdeveloped city,
my oil-stained co...more
Edward Hirsh's collection, Special Orders, mixes memories of his father figures with questions about faith, self, and a romance with urban landscapes. Poem after poem, Hirsch offers simple stories, vivid imagery, and interesting juxtaposition of colloquial and academic language. He references poets and writers, alludes to painters, and has a penchant for green. No, really, the color comes up literally and figuratively throughout. I tore through that book like no one's business, finding it a moti...more
Hirsch is one of my favorite poets, and I found some true gems in here (the opening poem stole my breath), but I didn't find myself fully pulled into the common tone of regret or nostalgia. I don't think these are poems that a younger person could have written; there are years hung upon them, although this isn't an ungraceful burden. I may need to re-read these through the next few decades of my life and see how much more I resonate with them.
A popular explainer of and teacher about poetry, hirsch is also an accomplished poet in his own right. This short collection, his seventh, is largely autobiographical, and when it is not, it touches upon personages and works of Jewish and Yiddish heritage.
The tone is usually of sadness and regret, but with joy also clearly in the picture. Individual poems deal with jobs he had as a young man, as well as with his subsequent lives as father, teacher, artist, and critic.
Hir...more
The tone is usually of sadness and regret, but with joy also clearly in the picture. Individual poems deal with jobs he had as a young man, as well as with his subsequent lives as father, teacher, artist, and critic.
Hir...more
My first encounter with Hirsch beyond individual poems here and there in magazines, etc. I found poems clear as glass from a poet at home in his own skin and life, able to be simple and direct and poetic all at once. Especially liked Kradow, 6 A.M. and Self-Portrait and A Few Encounters With My Face and To My Shadow. First half better than the second, for me.
This was one of the 2009 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/a...
Fear
sits on your
chest
happily hugging itself
and deeply leering.
Let it--
instead--
become a great stone,
something real:
a heavy
and wondrous
companion.
sits on your
chest
happily hugging itself
and deeply leering.
Let it--
instead--
become a great stone,
something real:
a heavy
and wondrous
companion.
Ed's images, his ability to grab a moment and crystallize its emotion, and his lucid style makes the ordinary, extraordinary. This book is seething with life in all of its dimensions--the joys, the grief, the spiritual and the temporal. I remember meeting this man when he was a student of my husband's at Grinnell College. Even then I knew he would become a fine poet.
Freshly baked bread, wild strawberries, memories on the subway platform, and the texture and taste of cotton candy. This very poignant and nostalgic collection of poetry carries one through Edward Hirsch's personal history with tenderness and affection.
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