false <![CDATA[Refusing Heaven]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178570964m/807629.jpg 280256 2 More than a decade after Jack Gilbert&#8217;s <i>[book: The Great Fires]</i>, this highly anticipated new collection shows the continued development of a poet who has remained fierce in his avoidance of the beaten path. In <i>Refusing Heaven</i>, Gilbert writes compellingly about the commingled passion, loneliness, and sometimes surprising happiness of a life spent in luminous understanding of his own blessings and shortcomings: &#8220;The days and nights wasted . . . Long hot afternoons / watching ants while the cicadas railed / in the Chinese elm about the brevity of life.&#8221; Time slows down in these poems, as Gilbert creates an aura of curiosity and wonder at the fact of existence itself. Despite powerful intermittent griefs&#8211;over the women he has parted from or the one lost to cancer (an experience he captures with intimate precision)&#8211;Gilbert&#8217;s choice in this volume is to &#8220;refuse heaven.&#8221; He prefers this life, with its struggle and alienation and delight, to any paradise. His work is both a rebellious assertion of the call to clarity and a profound affirmation of the world in all its aspects. It braces the reader in its humanity and heart.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i> 271853 13 3 2007 Refusing Heaven total:279|5:127|4:105|3:35|2:12|1:0| 279 1184 365 40 4 1 false false Mon Jul 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 22:20:16 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 22:37:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Feb 06 09:44:57 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 09:50:43 -0800 2009
The Abandoned Valley...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jul 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 18:51:26 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 19 18:59:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed May 20 19:17:04 -0700 2009 Wed May 20 19:19:27 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Oct 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 14:10:09 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 14:13:55 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Jun 15 10:32:09 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 15 10:36:06 -0700 2009 very good way:] through every poem.]]> 4 0 false false Mon Apr 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 11:33:33 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 06 11:33:33 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Mon Dec 31 22:17:47 -0800 2007 Sat Feb 09 22:36:21 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 08 17:08:59 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 17:49:45 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Sep 09 01:59:39 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 02:00:55 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Nov 13 09:20:35 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 13 09:27:08 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue May 05 10:09:48 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 10:11:24 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Fri Jan 02 13:50:30 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 11:33:11 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Tue Sep 15 23:00:27 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 27 18:51:38 -0700 2009 The Great Fires Poems, 1982-1992 to this is almost inexplicable. Gilbert's poems often teeter on the edge of unearned, overwrought sentimentality, and in this book he takes a real nosedive off the cliff.more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Aug 17 15:25:08 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 19 12:29:30 -0800 2009 a brief for the defense
having the having
by small and small
once upon a time
the rooster
failing and flying
burning ...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 14:51:04 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 03 06:43:10 -0800 2009 http://bookconscious.wordpress.com/2009/...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Nov 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Sep 21 08:14:21 -0700 2008 Sat Nov 29 09:45:58 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Wed Aug 08 07:16:48 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 17 11:15:34 -0700 2007
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 lo...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 01 05:27:32 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 06:01:57 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Sun Sep 02 10:25:13 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 02 10:28:18 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=807629