Grace Notes: New And Selected Poems

by Eugene McNamara

Grace Notes: New and Selected Poems is a collection of published and unpublished poems from the 1970s to the present day. They are organized into three groups. The first group in entitled "Grace Notes." These are poems that deal with composers such as Mahler, Dvorak, Ives, Richard Strauss, Roy Orbison or with specific pieces of music. The second group, "Imaginary Friends," are poems about historical figures -- architect Louis Sullivan, writer Marcel Proust, B-Movie queen Marie Windsor and others. The final group, "Back in the Real World," is closer to the poet's bone and soul. Here are elegies, valentines, and bits of personal history.

95 pages, Paperback

First published September 4, 2004

Reviews

[Héloïse Braun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this thrifting in BC and didn’t expect to love it so much. The loving grandfather figure I wish I had who dotes on his family and spreads love and warmth to all lucky enough to feel his embrace.

“You hold me in that hollowed space like shaking air”

“Here take this it’s all I’ve got-“

“and I held your world in my hand”

“I was in a place I wanted to be”

“Well James might have told her her comme il faut do not be a ficelle in your own life”

“Everything is waiting to begin again”

“Nothing is promised yet I feel hope spring in me like swift wings”

“Before I knew a name for myself knowing my self whole”

“I look and am content with absence- I am learning to see”