book data
246 ratings,
4.26
average rating, 35 reviews
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published
March 8th 2005
(first published 2007)
by Knopf
binding
Hardcover, 112 pages
literary awards
National Book Critics Circle Award (2005)
isbn
1400043654
(isbn13: 9781400043651)
description
More than a decade after Jack Gilbert’s The Great Fires, this highly anticipated new collection shows the continued development of a poet who has rema...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 320)
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avg 4.26
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
I love Jack Gilbert. He's always living in a stone hut in the countryside of Greece or Ireland and noticing the things that people only notice when they've been alone way too long and have a talent for observation. The result is quiet poems. Even the images are quiet.
The Abandoned Valley
Can you understand being alone so long
you would go out in the middle of the night
and put a bucket into the well
so you could feel something down there
tug at the othe...more
The Abandoned Valley
Can you understand being alone so long
you would go out in the middle of the night
and put a bucket into the well
so you could feel something down there
tug at the othe...more
Jack Gilbert is a poet who has lived the outside-the-poetry-establishment life. This book is another of his which focus on his loves, Nature, Mortality, transience. I won't bother to separately review The Great Fires, or Monolithos, but if any of these speak to you, the others will too.
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the finest book of poetry i have ever read, or ever hope to read. he writes with a painful, full beauty that leaves you panting after struggling [in a very good way:] through every poem.
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Read in April, 2009
"We are given trees so that we know what God looks like. And rivers so we might understand Him. We are allowed women so we can get into bed with the Lord, however partial and momentary that is." -JG
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In Refusing Heaven, Gilbert seems to some extent to have come to terms with his life. He's by no means content, but the passions and conflicts of his earlier works, while not completely resolved, feel at least to have moderated. Perhaps it's fitting; Gilbert turned eighty the year this book was published. He's reached the point where he's entitled to make a few plain statements of the world as he sees it.
Perhaps not as movingly painful as his earlier work, but uplifting in its g...more
Perhaps not as movingly painful as his earlier work, but uplifting in its g...more
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More good lines than good poems. Some flared and then didn't have the courage to simply stop. Several pieces, I'll admit, were immaculate.
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Not up to snuff with monolithos, but Gilbert who is getting up there in years, delivers some memorable poems in his latest book. 'A Brief for the Defense' rings of his possibly best know 'the abnormal is not courage' and has that same ability to dissect a cultural phenomena, turn it on its head, and still not leave you feeling uncomfortable but rather newly comfortable with is view, always opposite of the accepted. That sentence may not have made sense. Overall, great collection from an under...more
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Read in January, 2008
I thought I had not read this but just came across a list (long list) of my favorites. was tucked away in a pile of papers. here are the tip-tops:
a brief for the defense
having the having
by small and small
once upon a time
the rooster
failing and flying
burning
the other perfection
a brief for the defense
having the having
by small and small
once upon a time
the rooster
failing and flying
burning
the other perfection
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Read in November, 2008
This was my first experience of Jack Gilbert. I read him on the recommendation of two other poets I admire greatly, Gregory Crosby and Bruce Issacson. I love his bravery, his simplicity and his clear-eyed ironic humor. I will work my way backwards to Great Fires and Monolithos.
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6 comments
Such provender for want."
Not as good as "The Great Fires," but still very good.
Jack Gilbert: Michiko and Linda; solitude; ghosts; Pittsbugh; the Lord; interrogation of language; turns; use of 3rd person confessional; ex-pat loves and places; eros; clarity on loss.
Not as good as "The Great Fires," but still very good.
Jack Gilbert: Michiko and Linda; solitude; ghosts; Pittsbugh; the Lord; interrogation of language; turns; use of 3rd person confessional; ex-pat loves and places; eros; clarity on loss.
I read this shortly after finishing 'The Great Fires.' There's lots of gorgeous stuff in here, but his emotional torment has been tempered by time, and he's become comfortable enough with life to make statements of facts in his poetry. Which is less moving.
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jack gilbert is an incredibly talented poet... somehow both refined and raw in the same instant... he captures truth and tells it back right to the reader's core. if I ever write one piece that is as good as any of his, I will be satisfied.
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recommends it for:
fans of smart accessible poetry
if you find Bukowski's prose style engaging but a little too talky and a lot too butch but aren't quite ready to dive into flowers and beaches and birds, this is pretty good stuff. lots of poems about his dead wife.
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Read in October, 2007
I have read and re-read this book. Jack Gilbert is such an honest poet. His words stay with me. I came away from this collection with more respect for his work that in his earlier collection, The Great Fires.
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A fascinating voice that seems to straddle the aesthetic sensibilities of the raucous, sensual Beats and the meditative sensitivity of Hass, Simic and even Stephen Mitchell. enjoying very much
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For some reason I didn't like this as well as "The Great Fires," but still found it powerful. Jack Gilbert is, I believe, the greatest living American poet.
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Read in December, 2007
Another wonderful mix of life and poetry. Must read: Krustakammer with Flying & Falling. Some of the best american poetry to date.
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