In the Crevice of Time: New and Collected Poems

by Josephine Jacobsen

Collected poetry from the 1995 National Book Award finalist. Winner of the Frost Medal, the Poets' Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America Josephine Jacobsen's distinguished career as poet and writer spans more than six decades, from the publication of her first poem at age eleven to her 1994 American Academy of the Arts Citation, which celebrated her as a recipient of "almost every major poetry award." From 1971 to 1973 she served two terms as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a post recently retitled National Poet Laureate. Now in paperback, In the Crevice of Time brings together 176 new and previously published poems by one of the most accomplished and most widely acclaimed poets of our time.

Genres: Poetry

296 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1995

About the author

Josephine Jacobsen was an American poet, short story writer, and critic.

Born in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada, she moved with her family to New York at a young age. When she was fourteen, she moved to Maryland where she lived for the rest of her life. Jacobsen served as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress from 1971 to 1973 and as honorary consultant in American letters from 1973 to 1979. She served as member of both the literature panel for the National Endowment of the Arts and of the poetry committee of Folger Library.

Reviews

[Edita]

Now loneliness enters the marrow
and she leaves the bed
to stare from midnight's window .

Around the steel of stars
that prick the nothingness
dark is absolute.

She calculates the where
but above all the when
of that light's departure

for the infinitesimal
target of her eye,
and sinks into that fall.