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50th out of 50 books
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30 voters
Master of Disguises
In his first volume of poetry since his tenure as poet laureate, Charles Simic shows he is at the height of his poetic powers. These new poems mine the rich strain of inscrutability in ordinary life, until it is hard to know what is innocent and what ominous. There is something about his work that continues to be crystal clear and yet deeply weighted with violence and myst...more
Hardcover, 96 pages
Published
October 6th 2010
by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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As I walked to work amidst the rustling of leaves I saw Mr. Simic distractedly stumbling towards the shelter of a pine. He was searching for a patch of snow in which to cool his fiery mind but alas, it was summer. The pine fared better against the approaching storm than, say, a maple would, but the white noise of wind blotted out distraction and he was forced to take a more conventional path. He caught my stare and glimpsed at his watch to prove that, “no, no I’m sane; it was only a matter of ti...more
Master of Disguises by Charles Simic
Published by Houghton /Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 978-0-547-39709-2
Master of Disguises is Simic’s first volume of poetry since he served as poet laureate of the United States in 2007-2008. Charles Simic is a literary artist. His poems paint images that walk a thin line between innocence and guilt, between what one struggles to remember and what he desperately wants to forget, and between what is truth and what is myth.
The opening poem, The Invisible One, tells of a...more
Published by Houghton /Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 978-0-547-39709-2
Master of Disguises is Simic’s first volume of poetry since he served as poet laureate of the United States in 2007-2008. Charles Simic is a literary artist. His poems paint images that walk a thin line between innocence and guilt, between what one struggles to remember and what he desperately wants to forget, and between what is truth and what is myth.
The opening poem, The Invisible One, tells of a...more
Simic explores the themes of war, loneliness, life, secret observation and blends them together with words that gently dig into the scene without disrupting it.
This collection contains several works that really grabbed me. Simic is a master at taking something empty and making it feel full though detailing the parts. He picks something that could be benign and then zeros in on the strange parts that only someone with binoculars would see. For example in Streets Paved with Gold he starts with bla...more
This collection contains several works that really grabbed me. Simic is a master at taking something empty and making it feel full though detailing the parts. He picks something that could be benign and then zeros in on the strange parts that only someone with binoculars would see. For example in Streets Paved with Gold he starts with bla...more
Simic is one of the most admired of our living poets and I'm a newbie to reading poetry, so perhaps I'm not qualified to be passing judgement on his work. Still these poems seem to make sense to me on some instinctual level. They pass the gut-check.
I much taken, at first anyway, with the tone. The balance of the mundane and the horrific. Then they started to seem formulaic - enough with the porch lights! Enough with the shop windows! Just when I started to feel I was just reading the same poem o...more
I much taken, at first anyway, with the tone. The balance of the mundane and the horrific. Then they started to seem formulaic - enough with the porch lights! Enough with the shop windows! Just when I started to feel I was just reading the same poem o...more
I like these poems, but I didn't love them. Simic has a darkness about him that I admire only because he exposes it honestly in surprising ways, like the line in "Puppet Maker" in which a daughter molesting father suddenly makes an appearance. Simic's poems are immediately recognizable as his: the almost constant political background noise, the dark wit, the frequently bizarre (and sometimes inexplicable) turn of phrase. It's just that I don't always like the poems. It's that plain and simple. I...more
1 like · like · see review
It seems always twilight in Simic's poems, or night, or somewhere in between. Even if the sun is rising, or it is noon, it seems the poet is watching from the shadows, or entering the shadows. And, there is always the presence of death, but a weightless death, that doesn't bear down too heavily; more often welcomed than feared. The person of the undertaker, the barber, the man on a corner, has no more weight or dignity than the pigeon, or the sparrow, the dog in the front yard. Things are small...more
1 like · like · see review
It’s been a while since I read this. I finished it back in November and wanted to make sure I gave it a fair shake in the review, so I was waiting until I had time to write one. Lesson learned: You will never have time to write an adequate review for a book. Ever.
I know that several of my other goodreads friends out there have encountered this lesson time and time again. It’s still frustrating.
Master of Disguises was a good book of poetry. I’d read an enjoyed Simic’s Sixty Poems enough that I co...more
I know that several of my other goodreads friends out there have encountered this lesson time and time again. It’s still frustrating.
Master of Disguises was a good book of poetry. I’d read an enjoyed Simic’s Sixty Poems enough that I co...more
2 likes · like · see review
Graveside Oration
Our late friend hated blue skies,
Bible-quoting preachers,
Politicians kissing babies,
Women who are all sweetness.
He likes drunks in church,
Nudists playing volleyball,
Stray dogs making friends,
Birds singing of fair weather as they crap.
Our late friend hated blue skies,
Bible-quoting preachers,
Politicians kissing babies,
Women who are all sweetness.
He likes drunks in church,
Nudists playing volleyball,
Stray dogs making friends,
Birds singing of fair weather as they crap.
Another collection of fine poems by an expert poet. Simic has mastered the art of saying volumes in few words and leaving the reader with even more to contemplate.
Mar 21, 2011
Jesse
added it
He liked drunks in church,
Nudists playing volleyball,
Stray dogs making friends,
Birds singing of fair weather as they crap.
from "Graveside Oration"
The ease of understanding what he's written. I think nearly all his pieces are good and fun.
Enjoyed every moment of it! I will definitely read more poetry from him.
Late period Simic. Ehh.
Lots of dark moments and, as usual, really fine poetry. Hard to say "I loved it", though.
Nothing special here.
Nope
As always Simic makes great late-night reading. This collection particularly brought home the tragedy of war, more so than all the news reports I've read.
May 16, 2013
Veronika
marked it as to-read
Apr 28, 2013
Baby
marked it as to-read
Apr 19, 2013
Jon
is currently reading it
Feb 28, 2013
Chidi OKORO
marked it as to-read
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Charles Simic (born Dušan Simić) is a Serbian-American poet and the 15th Poet Laureate of the United States. He is co-Poetry Editor of the Paris Review. Simic is the 2007 recipient of the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets. This $100,000 (US) prize recognizes outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.
More about Charles Simic...
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Nov 22, 2012 05:21am
Nov 22, 2012 05:52am