Toward the Distant Islands: New and Selected Poems

by Hayden Carruth, Sam Hamill (Introduction)

“Carruth [is] one of the lasting literary signatures of our time.”— Library Journal (starred review) “Carruth...contains multitudes.”— Booklist (starred review) “Carruth is a people’s poet... a virtuoso of form.”— The Nation This “portable Carruth” gathers new poems with the essential works from a major American poet. Included are lyrics, short narratives, comic, meditative, and erotic poems that engage politics, music, rural poverty, and the cultural responsibility of artists. As Sam Hamill writes in the “Carruth’s great body of work is a world... Like the jazz he so loves, his poetry ranges from the formal to the spontaneous, from local vernacular to righteous oratory, from beautiful complexity to elegant understatement.” From “A Few Dilapidated Arias” “Our crumbling civilization”–a phrase I have used often
during recent years, in letters to friends, even in
words for public print. And what does it mean? Can
a civilization crumble? At once appears the image
of an old slice of bread, stale and hard, green with mold,
shaped roughly like the northeastern United States, years
old or more, so hard and foul that even my pal Maxie,
the shepherd/husky cross who eats everything, won’t
touch it. And it is crumbling, turning literally into
crumbs, as the millions of infinitesimal internal connecting
fibers sever and loosen. The dust trickles and seeps away. Hayden Carruth , a longtime resident of Vermont, currently lives in upstate New York, where he taught at Syracuse University. His many honors include the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Genres: Poetry

150 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Hayden Carruth was an American poet, literary critic, and anthologist known for his distinctive voice, blending formal precision with the rhythms of jazz and the blues. Over a career spanning more than sixty years, he published over thirty books of poetry, as well as essays, literary criticism, and anthologies. His work often explored themes of rural life, hardship, mental illness, and social justice, reflecting both his personal struggles and his political convictions.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Carruth studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and later earned an M.A. from the University of Chicago. His early career included serving as editor-in-chief of Poetry and as an advisory editor of The Hudson Review for two decades. He later became poetry editor at Harper’s Magazine and held teaching positions at Johnson State College, the University of Vermont, and Syracuse University, where he influenced a new generation of poets.
Carruth received numerous awards, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for Collected Shorter Poems (1992) and the National Book Award for Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey (1996). His later works, such as Doctor Jazz and Last Poems, further cemented his reputation as a major voice in American poetry. His influential anthology The Voice That Is Great Within Us remains a landmark collection of American verse.

Reviews

[Les]

From The Clay Hill Anthology
Selected Haiku

Why speak of the use
of poetry? Poetry
is what uses us.

-------
From Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey

Ecstasy

For years it was in sex and I thought
this was the most of it
so brief
a moment
or two of transport out of oneself
or
in music which lasted longer and filled me
with the exquisite wrenching agony
of the blues
and it is equally
transitory and obscure as I sit in my broken
chair that cats have shredded
by the stove on a winter night with wind and snow
howling outside and I imagine
the whole world at peace
at peace
and everyone comfortable and warm
the great pain assuaged
a moment
of the most shining and singular sensual gratification.

[Ken]

Personal stuff, so you get to know Hayden quite well -- married to a woman a generation younger, lost his daughter to cancer, anti-war in every way, New England Yankee writer/poet. Some of the poem read too conversational. Liked it best when he turned his gaze away from the diary and out to nature. Best was one about loons -- difficult to capture in a poem. But he comes close. Very, in fact!

[James]

Hayden Carruth lived and breathed poetry and his vast oeuvre is represented in this too brief book, a selection of poems chosen by his editor Sam Hamill. What is here is great, beautiful, and truly representative. But there is so much to Carruth that feels missing here. This might be a "portable" Carruth and a strong introduction, but one hopes it leads readers to find the full books and explore the poet's full range.

[Zinta]

Over many years of reading poetry, I've come to trust that any poetry book published by Copper Canyon Press is going to be an adventure. This collection , hand-picked by Press founder, Sam Hill, is no exception. I'd read enough of Hayden Carruth's work that I expected to be impressed, and I was.

The poems are selected from 12 previous collections (oh, if all of us poets could boast of so many published books!) with an addition of new poems at finish to keep the appetite whetted for more yet to come. It is interesting to watch for change and growth in the whole of Carruth's work, but that his talent was richly showing early on - the first batch selected dates back to 1959's "The Crow and the Heart" - is clear:

Of all disquiets sorrow is most serene.
Its interval of soft humility
Are lenient; they intrude on our obscene
Debasements and our fury like a plea
For wisdom...

Sorrow can shape us better than dismay.

Carruth understands the peaks and valleys of a man's life. As Sam Hill notes in his introduction, this is a poet who has struggled with angels and demons alike, finding both in himself. So his work reflects such struggles, and we swing upwards with him to whisper with angels, just as we slide into shadows with him, to weep and gnash teeth with dark demons. If a poet creates often from the grit inside him, as an oyster its pearl, then this poet proves the old axiom. We must know the demon to recognize the angel; we must strive to be angelic to fully understand the power of the demonic.

Carruth writes glorious love poems to his wife, filled with appetite and relish and adoration. He writes love poems to his daughter, lost too early to cancer. He writes love poems to the natural world around him, and to the characters that are found in humanity. He writes love poems to sorrow.

This is a poet who lives his life seam to seam, depth to height, and journals it into his lyric work. To share in his journey, this is a collection not to be missed.

[martha]

I had no idea how many naturey poems Carruth had written. I liked his later stuff better.

RIP Hayden Carruth :(

On Being Asked To Write A Poem Against The War In Vietnam
Hayden Carruth

Well I have and in fact
more than one and I'll
tell you this too

I wrote one against
Algeria that nightmare
and another against

Korea and another
against the one
I was in

and I don't remember
how many against
the three

when I was a boy
Abyssinia Spain and
Harlan County

and not one
breath was restored
to one

shattered throat
mans womans or childs
not one not

one
but death went on and on
never looking aside

except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.

[Ruth]

Hope to find this one thru the library. I already own a previous collection and I'm afraid there will be too many duplicates in this one. That said, I love the work of HC, exploring the deep undercurrents of life and aging.

[Phil]

this is a real treasurer to have for carrying around in a back pack or on the road. A wonderful choice of some of Carruth's best shorter works. A must have for Carruth fans.

[Dan]

Most recent book of poetry from Hayden Carruth published in 2006. Hayden is wonderful to read.

[Peter]

A very good introduction to his poetry

[Timothy]

I came to Carruth through Samuel Green (WA poet laureate). Wonderful, marvellous stuff. Beautiful connection to nature, the farming life and New England.

[Naomi]

Not always my cup of tea, but I have to admire his strength of style and amazing work.

[Mills College Library]

811.54 C3198t 2006

[Rani]

Great Collection of the poems of Hayden Carruth over his lifetime. I have become a fan for sure.

[William]

A balanced vision of his work;