false <![CDATA[Averno: Poems]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1178571141m/807673.jpg 76548 4 <div><div>Averno is a small crater lake in southern Italy, regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. That place gives its name to Louise Glück&#8217;s tenth collection: in a landscape turned irretrievably to winter, it is a gate or passageway that invites traffic between worlds while at the same time resisting their reconciliation. <i>Averno</i> is an extended lamentation, its long, restless poems no less spellbinding for being without conventional resoltution or consolation, no less ravishing for being savage, grief-stricken. What <i>Averno</i> provides is not a map to a point of arrival or departure, but a diagram of where we are, the harrowing, enduring present.</div></div> 793615 2006 Averno: Poems total:317|5:125|4:123|3:55|2:10|1:4| 317 1306 429 33 3 1 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 27 07:29:32 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 12:55:11 -0700 2008
I've never been entirely sure what to think of the work of Louise Gluck; Averno, however, has certainly tipped the balance into the “dislike” bucket. When she is good, she is very, very good; when she is bad, however, you get stuf...more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Mar 05 13:52:58 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 27 11:09:36 -0700 2008 Louise Gluck

1.
Who can say what the world is? The world
is in flux, therefore
unreadable, the winds shifting,
the great plates invisibly shifting and changing-


2.
Dirt. Fragments
of blistered rock. On which
the exposed heart ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Aug 22 00:15:24 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 20 22:33:05 -0700 2008 I preface this by saying I am a huge fan of Louise Gluck's poetry - she'd have to fall a long way for me to not consider her breathtaking, amazing, articulately intense - a creative flame. Averno is no exception to her previous work I have read.

Averno; again, elegant, emotive writi...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sat Nov 07 07:05:37 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 07 07:05:37 -0800 2009
Reading [Louise Gluck:] is excruciating -- and this is a compliment. A poet of taut intensities, she walks a high-wire between the oracular and everyday, the absolute and the ephemeral, the monumental and the delicate. In her latest boo...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 09:49:10 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 10:02:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Apr 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 27 18:02:34 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 15:11:50 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jun 15 14:53:40 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 15 17:31:42 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 11:52:41 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 26 08:03:14 -0700 2009
1.) There's something about the word "soul" that really grates on my poetic sensibilities -- it's weighted and politically/religiously-charged, and yet its definition is so vague it renders the word meaningless, maybe. Or that it reminds me too much o...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Dec 04 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 19 18:45:29 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 11 19:35:26 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jun 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 03:21:06 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 21 03:23:25 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 08 16:52:26 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 05:02:50 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Dec 10 23:02:31 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 23:03:13 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Wed Jun 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat May 30 10:20:38 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 03 17:52:16 -0700 2009 link]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 09 02:10:53 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 09 02:10:53 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 17 08:57:18 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 07:22:45 -0700 2007 more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Sep 09 22:18:56 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 10 11:01:06 -0700 2007
It is snowing on earth; the cold wind says

Persephone is having sex in hell.
Unlike the rest of us she doesn't know
what winter is, only...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 01 23:27:56 -0700 2009 Fri Dec 28 11:49:31 -0800 2007 Tue Sep 01 23:27:56 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 29 12:55:56 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 19 20:27:16 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 05 16:40:10 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 05 16:40:10 -0700 2007 4 0 false false Tue May 13 18:52:28 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 08:01:25 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 18:52:28 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=807673