Not So the Chairs

by Donald Finkel, Mary Sprague (Illustrator)

Not So The Chairs: Selected And New Poems is the fifteenth collection from Donald Finkel, one of our most esteemed living poets. The 86 poems collected in this book span 44 years, beginning with a selection from The Clothing's New Emperor, published in 1959, and concluding with 29 previously uncollected new poems. Here is the influential poet and teacher speaking to us as the polesitter who views us at our labors and pleasures from an ironic distance, as the caver who feels his way along the flinty details of our shared experience, as the animal behaviorist who observes in beasts that which is profoundly human, as the peripatetic naturalist who explores his vast neighborhood, revisiting what survives inattention, and as the sculptor who finds our shape beneath an obscuring surface.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2003

About the author

Donald Alexander Finkel was an American poet best known for his unorthodox styles and "curious juxtapositions".

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am particularly drawn to Finkel's treatment of the animal kingdom, approached with such reverence and sense of humor. I often see an affinity between Finkel and Stanley Kunitz (think The Wellfleet Whale, for instance). And as always, it's wonderful to have a person's work from over the decades gathered in one place.

[Tad Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last collection by a great poet, great mentor, great friend, now lost to Alzheimer's.

For a late and devastatingly prophetic poem, look at "Burden," here:

http://www.cortlandreview.com/issue/9...

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Original, interesting and thought provoking. A selection, as well as new poems.