A Place at the Table: Poems

by Steve Orlen

Softcover. Stated First Edition. Back cover has one small crease near bottom. No other items to note.

Genres: Poetry

49 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

gorgeously terse writing about family, domestic life, love, questioning

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a delight to open a slim volume of poems that lend themselves to reading again several times. Certainly, for me, the first two sections of this early book by Orlen are this way. The first section, introduced by the passage from the book of common prayer, “ we have left undone those things we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and have done, brims with the presence of family, dipping into questions about love. The second section calls on artists, poets, even Eve, to tell a story , unafraid, like Picasso to “toss up shapes” or to fracture the face, allowing the reader an inside look beyond surface.
The third section gathers personal vignettes, memories, introduced with a quotation from Yannis Ritsos, Scripture of the Blind. “How strange—he said—
to realize suddenly that no one is to blame.”

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved browsing when hungering for my next read. On this day, a few years into working professionally I meandered into a adjacent isle of books in the original Borders Books on State Street and I found I was in POETRY. I had not been writing, but considered reading some new poems a good thing. I wanted a slim volume as a much alive poet had envisioned and not some collected tome of a late great.

Thus began my casual practice of reading new poets from time to time. This book was my first selection. I brought it with me on x-ski trip with friends and shared a few poems in it. One friend found a reflection in one and it was comforting.

When I travel, I like to pick-up slim volumes, as local poets are often sponsored by their regional bookstores. Moreover, their work may not circulate nationally.