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The Simple Truth
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Written in a voice that moves between elegy and prayer, The Simple Truth contains thirty-three poems whose aim is to weave a complex tapestry of myth, history (both public and private), family, memory, and invention in a search for truths so basic and universal they often escape us all.
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Paperback, 69 pages
Published
September 3rd 1996
by Knopf
(first published 1994)
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3.5
I honestly enjoyed this collection. Levine's writing is very simple. You can feel the calmness in each line, idk if you get what i mean! These poems are very quiet 'n lovely.
“Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker-”
I'm definitely looking forward to read more of his work. ...more
I honestly enjoyed this collection. Levine's writing is very simple. You can feel the calmness in each line, idk if you get what i mean! These poems are very quiet 'n lovely.
“Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker-”
I'm definitely looking forward to read more of his work. ...more
Brilliant, engaging, human and personal. Levine is one of the greats.
Ask for Nothing
Instead walk alone in the evening
heading out of town toward the fields
asleep under a darkening sky;
the dust risen from your steps transforms
itself into a golden rain fallen
earthward as a gift from no known god.
The plane trees along the canal bank
the few valley poplars, hold their breath
as you cross the wooden bridge that leads
nowhere you haven't been, for this walk
repeats itself once or more a day.
That is why in ...more
Ask for Nothing
Instead walk alone in the evening
heading out of town toward the fields
asleep under a darkening sky;
the dust risen from your steps transforms
itself into a golden rain fallen
earthward as a gift from no known god.
The plane trees along the canal bank
the few valley poplars, hold their breath
as you cross the wooden bridge that leads
nowhere you haven't been, for this walk
repeats itself once or more a day.
That is why in ...more
The one poet I would take to a desert island. Deceptively simple and straight-forward. The voice of America from the jobs and small houses of second generation immigrants establishing a place in industrial might of our mid-Century. A voice of grey smoke and dirty rivers and people getting up in the morning in the dark.
Ask for Nothing
Instead walk alone in the evening
heading out of town toward the fields
asleep under a darkening sky;
the dust risen from your steps transforms
itself into a golden rain fallen
earthward as a gift from no known god.
The plane trees along the canal bank
the few valley poplars, hold their breath
as you cross the wooden bridge that leads
nowhere you haven't been, for this walk
repeats itself once or more a day.
That is why in the distance you see
beyond the first ridge of low hills
where nothing ...more
Instead walk alone in the evening
heading out of town toward the fields
asleep under a darkening sky;
the dust risen from your steps transforms
itself into a golden rain fallen
earthward as a gift from no known god.
The plane trees along the canal bank
the few valley poplars, hold their breath
as you cross the wooden bridge that leads
nowhere you haven't been, for this walk
repeats itself once or more a day.
That is why in the distance you see
beyond the first ridge of low hills
where nothing ...more
Sometimes you just need a good poem to drop you into a different place in a different time. Phillip Levine’s prize winning poetry does that well.
I'm not sure what prompted me to finally get a volume of Philip Levine's poetry. Perhaps I'd heard of his passing earlier this year. I've been curious about his poetry ever since first reading "You Can Have It" (available here http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/...) in an anthology many years ago. I've enjoyed other poems of his I've run across over the years. I chose The Simple Truth because it won him a Pulitzer so I thought it might represent some of his best work. However, I doubt that's t
...more
Phillip Levine's Simple Truth
Philip Levine writes in the title poem of this collection:
"Some things/you know all your life. They are so simple and true/they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,/they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,/the glass of water, the absence of light gathering/ in the shadows of picture frames, they must be/ naked and alone, they must stand for themselves."
These lines capture many of the themes of this Pulitzer-prize winning book. The poems in t ...more
Philip Levine writes in the title poem of this collection:
"Some things/you know all your life. They are so simple and true/they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,/they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,/the glass of water, the absence of light gathering/ in the shadows of picture frames, they must be/ naked and alone, they must stand for themselves."
These lines capture many of the themes of this Pulitzer-prize winning book. The poems in t ...more
This 1995 Pulitzer Prize-winning volume by the great American poet Philip Levine deserves its heady accolades. Harold Bloom wrote at the time of its release: "I wonder if any American poet since Walt Whitman himself has written elegies this consistently magnificent. The controlled pathos of every poem in the volume is immense, and gives me a new sense of Levine." Plain and exalted, the experience of reading this collection is as rich as reading a great novel. Some highlights:
from "The Poem of Ch ...more
from "The Poem of Ch ...more
"It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it."
...more
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it."
...more
Bought this on a whim because I saw Cameron McGill post about it. Needed something to read, and he spoke so fondly of it. Can't deny I was curious, though it appears superficial, that it won the '95 Pulitzer Prize.
At first, I wasn't sure if I was enjoying it. But the more I got accustomed to Levine's style, the more I fell in love. Absolutely feeling inspired thanks to this collection. ...more
At first, I wasn't sure if I was enjoying it. But the more I got accustomed to Levine's style, the more I fell in love. Absolutely feeling inspired thanks to this collection. ...more
This guy came to me by way of Joseph Millar recommendation. It's obvious that Levine has been a strong influence on Millar (and others, I would assume): long lines, narrative poems, descriptions of work, occasional references to the Spanish Civil War... Among the many, many collections that Levine published, I grabbed this one because it won the Pulitzer. It’s almost immediately apparent that this is a book of recollection, a book of remembering, rather than an “urgent” book—Levine was almost 70
...more
By the time I realised it isn't for me, I was already halfway through the book, so I took it as an argument that it isn't really as boring and dry as I think.
Continued reading it, and I found myself falling in love with the style. These poems are in the form of lyrical elegies that feel easy on the tongue; and Mr Levine expertly describes things with such detailed imagery that the scenarios he paints become as vivid as reality. He successfully brings, through narrative, the simple truth that we ...more
Continued reading it, and I found myself falling in love with the style. These poems are in the form of lyrical elegies that feel easy on the tongue; and Mr Levine expertly describes things with such detailed imagery that the scenarios he paints become as vivid as reality. He successfully brings, through narrative, the simple truth that we ...more
Day one of the "SealeyChallenge" and I already have to edit. So I went to read Mary Oliver and then I opened the book to find I had already read it. So I read it again and added Philip Levine. Starting with some Pulitzer winners from 1995 and 2005. Both lovely.
From Philip Levine's "Dust and Memory": ...
"The wind
that swirled the sand that day years ago
had a name that will outlast mine
by a thousand years, though made of air,
which is what I too shall become, hope-
fully..."
I loved "Dust and Memory," ...more
From Philip Levine's "Dust and Memory": ...
"The wind
that swirled the sand that day years ago
had a name that will outlast mine
by a thousand years, though made of air,
which is what I too shall become, hope-
fully..."
I loved "Dust and Memory," ...more
This is the first book of poetry I ever fell in love with. A friend on my year abroad in college had brought it with her to Ecuador, and I borrowed it repeatedly, and ordered a copy the minute I got home (it was also probably the first book I ever ordered through a local bookstore and paid full MSRP for). It’s still magic to me. “Ask for nothing” remains probably my favorite poem in the world.
Could have been 5 stars. Maybe I'll change it to 5 when come back to these poems. They kind of smack you in the face--start out nice and simple and then wham. I don't want to read them all, one after the other; they demand thought, consideration, distance. Find Levine reading the title poem on the web. Hearing him read it is quite an experience.
...more
A lovely little volume. Some of the images and rhythms are truly astounding. I think my favorite is “No Buyers,” especially the line “perhaps it’s light in tiny diamonds meant to consecrate the day or dirty it.” I also really liked “Magpiety.”
Really simple writing style with incredibly profound thoughts. These are more than just poems - they are personal stories that are compressed and presented almost like dreams or prayers at times. Even if you think you don't like poetry, you might enjoy this collection.
...more
The collection of narrative, conversational poems won the Pulitzer Prize in 1995. Highly accessible collection with some lovely individual lines. My favorite poems include "The Simple Truth" and "My Mother with Purse..." How ambitious is the collection is something for each reader to decide.
...more
'Photography' is one of the best poems I've read in a long time.
...more
Not my cup of tea
I honestly enjoyed this collection. Levine's writing is very simple. You can feel the calmness in each line, idk if you get what i mean! These poems are very quiet 'n lovely
...more
I love the calmness and the clarity and, most importantly, the well-worn wisdom that support the length and breadth of these poems. I will miss his poetry greatly now that he has passed.
Kind of meh. Some interesting lines but a lot of references to his own life which I didn’t quite understand. More prosaic than poetic in style, broken up into verses with poetic themes. Not a fan.
The Simple Truth is just that. It is straightforward, I suspect that it is highly autobiographical, and it is a really good book. Most of the poems seem to be set in the 1960s, although the collection was published in 1994. Many of the poems describe Levine's hometown, Detroit.
As long as I have been alive, optimists have been asserting that Detroit is set for a comeback, while the pessimists/realists have left the city and look back at it only from the other side of Eight Mile. It was interesti ...more
As long as I have been alive, optimists have been asserting that Detroit is set for a comeback, while the pessimists/realists have left the city and look back at it only from the other side of Eight Mile. It was interesti ...more
This Pulitzer Prize (1995) winning book is the work of a seasoned poet. He is so skilled at lyric narrative; I reread this book for it's infinite layers. There are many elegies in this book.
In a poem titled The Poem of Chalk he writes, "He knew/the whole history of chalk, not only/of this particular piece, but also/the chalk with which I wrote/my name the day they welcomed/me back to school after the death/of my father. He knew feldspar,/he knew calcium, oyster shells, he/knew what creatures had ...more
In a poem titled The Poem of Chalk he writes, "He knew/the whole history of chalk, not only/of this particular piece, but also/the chalk with which I wrote/my name the day they welcomed/me back to school after the death/of my father. He knew feldspar,/he knew calcium, oyster shells, he/knew what creatures had ...more
I'm not a huge poetry reader, but as my Library was hosting the Poet Laureate in a web event I thought I would take the opportunity to read some of his poetry beforehand as this book just happened across my desk. I'm so glad I did. I understand now why they call Philip Levin the Working Man's Poet. His poetry is down to earth and approachable, with everyday themes and words that make the reader feel at home, even welcomed into the pages. I am a fan.
...more
The Simple Truth, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1995, is perhaps Levine's most basic, streamlined collection. As the title poem states
Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker...
they must stand for themselves.
And the poems in this collection do just that. Lovely, quiet, and powerful. ...more
Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker...
they must stand for themselves.
And the poems in this collection do just that. Lovely, quiet, and powerful. ...more
I enjoyed this collection but didn't like it as well as "The Mercy" but it shares many of the same style characteristics in the poems--lyricism, story telling, presence in the moment. There was less a sense of awe in some of them that I liked so well in "The Mercy" but these are very much in touch with everyday living and a good, easy read and taste treat when read poem by poem
...more
This collection is a powerful book of poetry that is also beautiful, mesmerizing, and thought-provoking. If you are a fan of narrative style poetry and you haven't checked out Levine, you should do so now. Highly recommended and quite evident why it won the Pulitzer.
...more
Philip Levine’s Pulitzer Prize winning book of poetry, The Simple Truth, takes the reader on a journey through the ins and outs of life, death and everything in between. Some of the poems had such a haunting lyricism that one at times felt entangled within the words.
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Philip Levine (b. January 10, 1928, Detroit, Michigan. d. February 14, 2015, Fresno, California) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet best known for his poems about working-class Detroit.
He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He is appointed to serve as the Poet Laureate of t ...more
He taught for over thirty years at the English Department of California State University, Fresno and held teaching positions at other universities as well. He is appointed to serve as the Poet Laureate of t ...more
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“Oh, yes, let’s bless the imagination. It gives us the myths we live by. Let’s bless the visionary power of the human— the only animal that’s got it—, bless the exact image of your father dead and mine dead, bless the images that stalk the corners of our sight and will not let go.”
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