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Sinners Welcome
by
Mary Karr
In her fourth collection of poems, self-described black-belt sinner Mary Karr traces her improbable journey from the inferno of a tormented childhood into a resolutely irreverent Catholicism. Not since Saint Augustine wrote "Give me chastity, Lord--but not yet " has anyone brought such smart-assed hilarity to a conversion story.
Paperback, 93 pages
Published
November 3rd 2009
by Harper Perennial
(first published February 28th 2006)
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Mary Karr shares my mother's name and birth year and strength and fragility. That's about where the comparisons end, as my mother is a lifelong conservative Wesleyan, and Mary Karr became a Catholic at 40 after lifelong literary liberalism (which she retains). My mother's had some choice words for people at times, particularly heartbreaking times, and Karr herself pulls from that reserve with abandon. (One poem here about a relationship gone sour ends with the poet-memoirist tagging herself as a...more
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Long Book Review - Sinners Welcome - Mary Karr
Finding Herself.
‘Sinner’s Welcome’ is a collection of poetry by the talented Mary Karr. It is brimming with her memories, stories and secrets all compiled into one fascinating book. It’s her fourth collection of poems and if you search deep enough within her words, Karr will allow you to experience her own personal memories and hear her thoughts. The title of the book ‘Sinners Welcome’ drew me in because it sounded inter...more
Finding Herself.
‘Sinner’s Welcome’ is a collection of poetry by the talented Mary Karr. It is brimming with her memories, stories and secrets all compiled into one fascinating book. It’s her fourth collection of poems and if you search deep enough within her words, Karr will allow you to experience her own personal memories and hear her thoughts. The title of the book ‘Sinners Welcome’ drew me in because it sounded inter...more
So many of these incredible poems compelled me to read them several times before moving on to the next poem. Several of the poems brought tears to my eyes. Karr has the ability to move a reader without gimmicks in her poems. No Hallmark-style manipulation of the reader's emotion. Just daring to write honestly about her life and her spirituality in the face of all the reasons there are to NOT believe in a higher power...
If the neon cross on the cover and the title hadn’t forewarned me the latest book of poems by the author of The Liar’s Club and Cherry, the large amount of traditional Christian religious imagery and subject matter would have come as bit of a surprise. Her memoirs of growing up in East Texas contain few references to religion and only a passing allusion to infrequent church visits with neighbors and a fight with girl who accused her (accurately) of saying that the pope dressed like a girl. Othe...more
Mary Karr’s Sinners Welcome may not hit the target it’s aiming for, but it’s a solid poetry collection nonetheless.
Karr (probably now more famed for her memoirs than her poetry) became unexpectedly Catholic after a long battle with alcohol abuse, and while this collection was supposed to highlight that epiphany, the faith poems here are a mixed bag. The afterword/essay, “Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer,” however, explores her faith in a way that finally resonates (namely her realiz...more
Karr (probably now more famed for her memoirs than her poetry) became unexpectedly Catholic after a long battle with alcohol abuse, and while this collection was supposed to highlight that epiphany, the faith poems here are a mixed bag. The afterword/essay, “Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer,” however, explores her faith in a way that finally resonates (namely her realiz...more
An intriguing collection of well-crafted poems that skirts a very fine line between revering faith and scorning it. Though this is acknowledged by the author, (in the poems and in the essay at the end of the book) there were more than a few places in which I felt the author was simply trying (too hard) to have it both ways--attempting to make meaningful poetry about life from the perspective of a practicing Catholic, while straining against the limiting aspects of the Church's antiquated doctrin...more
Mary Karr, Sinners Welcome (Harper Collins, 2006)
Mary Karr's new book was marketed to me as poetry reflecting her conversion to Catholicism, which immediately set alarm bells off in my head; religious poetry tends to be, well, religious, and most of it is message poetry (which is, in almost every case, inherently bad). But a Gerard Manley Hopkins wannabe Ms. Karr is not; she's still very in touch with her former, non-Catholic, self:
“The notebook in my knapsack//was a tali...more
Mary Karr's new book was marketed to me as poetry reflecting her conversion to Catholicism, which immediately set alarm bells off in my head; religious poetry tends to be, well, religious, and most of it is message poetry (which is, in almost every case, inherently bad). But a Gerard Manley Hopkins wannabe Ms. Karr is not; she's still very in touch with her former, non-Catholic, self:
“The notebook in my knapsack//was a tali...more
From her website I got a poem. I love her description of Christ always there and her acknocwledgment of arrogance in her brush-fly-off dismissal, and the tidal surge that brought her to God and Christ. I relate to this a great deal. Heres the poem
DISGRACELAND
Before my first communion at 40, I clung
to doubt as Satan spider-like stalked
the orb of dark surrounding Eden
for a wormhole into paradise.
God had first formed me in the...more
DISGRACELAND
Before my first communion at 40, I clung
to doubt as Satan spider-like stalked
the orb of dark surrounding Eden
for a wormhole into paradise.
God had first formed me in the...more
Mary Karr's collection of poems, Sinners Welcome, is amazing. She mixes ideas of relgion and love so elegantly and skillfully. It's fun to know personal dirt about poets, and these poems offer that. So good. As a bonus, Karr includes an essay at the end about her spirituality and faith. I shocked myself that I liked her poetry considering how much faith she has in Christianity and how much I do not. Her poems aren't preachy, and I dig that.
Memoirst/poet Mary Karr's work is worth knowing and celebrating for her "Descending Theology" series alone, which is rounded up here and presented with an array of other poems that offer truly moving ruminations on the human and the sublime in equal measure. The poems are excellent, and as a bonus there is an essay at the end of the book that chronicles the author's own spiritual awakening and details her likening of poetry to religion. It's not what I'd call orthodox, but it is very h...more
Karr's poetry was wonderful in what it said and what it was showing. However, I personally was not that thrilled with her style, and I found very little of her imagery to pull me in as other poets do. Though I would rate this as 3.5 stars, I will give it four because it is simply a matter of preference and, setting that aside, it is great poetry.
She's sincere, but that doesn't make the collection any better. In general, I like this sort of thing, but religious poetry is very hard to do. As far as moderns go, check out T.S. Eliot, Geoffrey Hill, Rosanne Coggeshall, Gjertrud Schnackenberg, R.S. Thomas, etc. I have some others on my poetry shelf. Skip this one.
A collection of Karr's most recent poetry and a reprint of a story originally published in Poetry about her mid-life turn to Catholicism. Having read her memoirs previously provides more context for the poems here, especially since many focus on relationships. Karr's mother and son show up frequently, but so do other friends and writers who have influenced her. She provides one poem for Walt Mink, which, although it's not my favorite poem in the book, provided a glimmer of joyous remembrance ...more
This was actually pretty good. Though confessional poetry isn't always my favorite, I was surprised by how strong, and consistently interesting the rhythms and the music of the words were. Her often acerbic attitude towards religion (a friend called her a "middle finger Catholic") belies some real soul-searching, which is evident here.
There are the common poem-to-a-student, and poem-to-another-poet poems here, but they're handled well, and tend to be strong. Especially h...more
There are the common poem-to-a-student, and poem-to-another-poet poems here, but they're handled well, and tend to be strong. Especially h...more
before my non-religious friends dismiss this as "religious", you have to read her essay at the end. she is so funny and self-deprecating and the real type of a believer I dream of being when I grow up.
I have been reading Mary Karr for years and was absolutely thrilled when I found that she had finally published another book of poetry. I eagerly devoured this book in one sitting and was left completely... bored. Karr's other books have such a feeling of vitality and passion. Every poem in Viper Rum has these *moments* that stick with you for years to come. The poems in Sinners Welcome, however, seem to merely take up space. I don't want to say that the poems are dull because they are not about...more
I could reread this collection a hundred times, and probably, I will. With the new essay in the back by the poet herself as the afterword, this collection is incredible. Mary Karr expresses better than most (especially most of the world's despondent poets, which we sometimes all seemed doomed to play), the saving power of poetry, prayer, and God.
this collection includes a poem about john engman. for a time, she slept on his couch. in minneapolis. love that. a lot.
It's ok. I really love Mary Karr for some reason and I like a lot of her poetry but I prefer her memoirs.
the essay in the back is worth the price of the book on faith and poetry.....
Read some of this book out loud to my husband and the passages made me cry.
The poems were too muddy or disjointed to understand. The essay at the close of the book was a nice attempt but too self-important and irreverent to be taken seriously.
These poems were hit and miss for me. But the ones that hit hit hard. I'll go back to some of these poems again.
This is the second collection of Mary Karr’s poetry I read and unfortunately I don’t think her poetry compares to her prose. In this collection the essay at its end about her unlikely Catholicism is more engaging and memorable than the poems that precede it. The poems have a formal structure but they read like pedestrian prose poems. Karr writes with a hard-boiled intelligence that gives her prose power and music, like a great rock and roll song, but something happens in her poems that is flat a...more
Every time I read Mary Karr's works -- poetry or prose -- it's like she's ripped open her chest to give a glimpse of her insides, blood, guts and all. She has a way of exposing her own vulnerabilities through a veil of her sassy humor. Though not a believer myself, I particularly enjoyed her essay on poetry and prayer at the end of the book.
If you read this book and thought the title poem was about sex, then you don't get it. Mary Karr gets it. A Catholic all my life, I can only imagine the journey that brought her to this. And I'm a bit jealous that I have not experienced the "crisis" that resulted in this beautiful collection. But I am grateful for the gift.
Though marked as 'read' I am always reading it. And thinking about it.
Greaty poetry, esp. so after having read her memoir "Lit," which was quite good.
for anyone who fell off the catholic bandwagon only to find yourself thumbing a ride and jumping right back on when it's the only thing to stop and carry you home, only to jump right off again. accomplishes something sweet and rare among the lyrical types: a good laugh or two.
dthaase
rated it
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review of another edition
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review of another edition
Recommends it for:
those who enjoy confessional poetry
Shelves:
poetry
Mary Karr's poetry is fresh and full of life. I particularly enjoyed her several "Descending Theology..." poems scattered throughout. This book is worth the afterword alone that includes an essay she wrote for Poetry entitled, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer."
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Mary Karr is an American poet, essayist and memoirist. She rose to fame in 1995 with the publication of her bestselling memoir The Liars' Club. She is the Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University.
The Liars' Club, published in 1995, was a New York Times bestseller for over a year, and was named one of the year's best books. It delves vividly and often humorously into her de...more
More about Mary Karr...
The Liars' Club, published in 1995, was a New York Times bestseller for over a year, and was named one of the year's best books. It delves vividly and often humorously into her de...more
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“The Lesson You've Got
to learn is the someday you'll someday
stagger to, blinking in cold light, all tears
shed, ready to poke your bovine head
in the yoke they've shaped.
Everyone learns this. Born, everyone
breathes, pays tax, plants dead
and hurts galore. There's grief enough
for each. My mother
learned by moving man to man,
outlived them all. The parched earth's
bare (once she leaves it) of any who watched
the instants I trod it.
Other than myself, of course.
I've made a study of bearing
and forbearance. Everyone does,
it turns out, and note
those faces passing by: Not one's a god. ”
—
4 people liked it
to learn is the someday you'll someday
stagger to, blinking in cold light, all tears
shed, ready to poke your bovine head
in the yoke they've shaped.
Everyone learns this. Born, everyone
breathes, pays tax, plants dead
and hurts galore. There's grief enough
for each. My mother
learned by moving man to man,
outlived them all. The parched earth's
bare (once she leaves it) of any who watched
the instants I trod it.
Other than myself, of course.
I've made a study of bearing
and forbearance. Everyone does,
it turns out, and note
those faces passing by: Not one's a god. ”
“In my godless household, poems were the closest we came to sacred speech -- the only prayers said.”
—
3 people liked it
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