Poems from Ish River Country: Collected Poems and Translations

by Robert Sund

Poems from Ish River Country collects the complete poems of poet, painter and calligrapher Robert Sund. Mr. Sund's few published volumes of poetry and frequent public readings established his reputation as one of the most distinctive poetic voices of the Pacific Northwest, where he enjoyed a tremendous popularity before his death in 2001. His short, imagistic poems, in the tradition of William Carlos Williams and Kenneth Rexroth, distill the essence of the Northwest landscape and in plain speech celebrate themes of family, friendship, work and quiet contemplation.
Included here are the poet's award-winning collections, Bunch Grass, which gave literary voice to the rolling wheat country east of the Cascade Mountains in his native Washington State, and Ish River, which celebrated the misty, riverine landscape of the Puget Sound country, a place, in the poet's words, "between two mountain ranges where / many rivers / run down to an inland sea". But the great bulk of this collection contains poems unpublished during the poet’s lifetime or published only in very limited editions. There is also a generous selection of his translations, from Issa, Buson, Basho, and most especially from the Swedish poet Rabbe Enckell, with whom Mr. Sund felt a close affinity.

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2004

Reviews

[Chris LaTray]

What an experience. Poems from Ish River Country will be on my shelf when people have to clean up my messes after I die. As part of my own practice, I write a sentence a day. This is what I wrote last night after finishing this beautiful book:

01/21/2020: Reading the poet Robert Sund, a gift from a loving friend, I like to imagine myself ten or twenty years gone, even longer out of print, being discovered for the first time in a dusty bookshop, or as a gift from one loving friend again to another, by someone who smiles and knows exactly what I was chasing with my words, because they too are part of that relentless pursuit.

[Bradley]

This had been on my Currently Reading for a while because I read it twice. These poems are so low-key, at first you’re like, “wow, there is really just nothing happening at all here!” but the more you let them pull you in, there is a depth and power that catches you off guard. It turns out you have a voice here that is timeless like Tang Dynasty, but is as warm, local and familiar as you can get. Very glad to have discovered this book--it is great!

[Heather Durham]

This book was recommended to me so long ago I've forgotten by whom, and I'd looked and failed to find it so many times in all the promising places that I'd given up. And then, shortly after moving into Ish River Country not far from the Snohomish and Stillaguamish, I happened upon a new used bookstore on the banks of a third Ish River, Kiss The Sky(komish) Books. Just poking around, enjoying the magical, mystical murals, creaking along wooden floors, peering into a small crate, I found this book. Or it found me. Of course it did. Dusty and smelling of smoke and oiled wood.
It was worth the wait.

I loved feeling privy to Sund's experiences of and connections with the land I now call home. I loved his attention to seemingly small things, how he proves they matter, even in their simplicity. Best of all, this collection helped me remember that I - a prose reader and writer - can love poetry, and more, it inspired me to join in the conversation and write my own distilled moments and brief meditations. What a huge gift.

[Scott Ballard]

A stunning collection of Sund’s work, some absolutely beautiful work in here. I love his BUNCH GRASS collection. Poems that stood out, 32 (Bunch grass), Friends, As Though the Word Blue Had Been Dropped Into the Water, Enough, The Frog I Saved From a Snake, Ten by Twelve, The Table I Keep.

FRIENDS

Friends make us fuller.
When friends leave, their light stays behind.
It is like the blue sea
That supports the white breakers
That come and go.

No matter how far I go,
I long to return and be with friends.
It’s never the same fire I left,
But beneath it are the ashes
If all our meetings that have gone before.

[Josie]

I don't like a lot of poetry but I enjoyed several of these poems.

[Andy]

To be fair, I didn’t finish the book—I finished the first half and skimmed through the rest. I can see why people enjoy his poetry: it isn’t highbrow, and it’s always fun to read a poet of the region (when I know the region).

But for me, the problem reflects one of the benefits: the poetry is so not highbrow that it is lowbrow. I had a tough time, after a while, not skimming (and as I mentioned above, my patience eventually failed). The language is flat, and the line breaks aren’t engaging.

There’s a very clear affinity for Asian poetry: much of his structure seems to be working in the same direction, and there’re three sections of translations of Asian poets. But his line breaks, again, aren’t leveraging enough. And with the longer-than-tanka format and the inclusion of punctuation, finding a jo seems a little contrary.

[Everett]

A good collection of his poems replete with his typically short, well-trained Eastern influenced musings on nature, family, and life in the Pacific Northwest. I read selections from this book often

[Stephen]

'In the Woods Above Issaqua', contained herein, is one of the best love poems ever written.

[Gayle]

Pretty much my favorite Northwest poet.