City Of Salt

by Gregory Orr

A reader unfamiliar with Orr's work may be surprised, at first, by the richness of both action and visual detail that his succinct, spare poems convey. Lyricism can erupt in the midst of desolation."--Boston Sunday Globe

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Gregory Orr was born in Albany, New York in 1947, and grew up in the rural Hudson Valley. He received a BA degree from Antioch College in 1969 and an MFA from Columbia University in 1972.

He is the author of more than ten collections of poetry, including River Inside the River: Poems (W. W. Norton, 2013); How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (2005); The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems (2002); Orpheus and Eurydice (2001); City of Salt (1995), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Poetry Prize; Gathering the Bones Together (1975) and Burning the Empty Nests (1973).

He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002), which was chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books the year, and three books of essays, including Poetry As Survival (2002) and Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry (1985).
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Reviews

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

He's wicked good.

[Jacob Lehman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Darn close to five-stars- his work is very readable, and as a former classicist I really enjoyed his mythological poems.

[Christy J-Furem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregory Orr's words are carefully formed, rich, and sharp as a knife.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a calm, gentle collection of poems about life and grief by Gregory Orr. Three of the four sections in the book contain poems that harvest scenes from Orr’s life as a child who lost both parents at a young age, who accidentally killed one of his siblings and who is now an adult with a family of his own. The other section contains poems steeped in allusions to mythology, art and poetry, showing how these forces have shed light on humans' complex relationships for eons. The tone of the book is soft, meditative and doesn’t waver from beginning to end. On one level, all of these elements were comfortable and reassuring, a collection that (like Orr’s book of prose, Poetry as Survival) brings me back to the first poetry I was drawn to and moved by years ago. But, on the other hand, after the concentrated amount of diverse poetry I’ve read, I found myself a little bored and distracted as I breezed through each poem, quickly deciphering the themes and techniques of each. Thus, I would recommend this book to early readers just discovering contemporary poetry, but more voracious poetry fans may not be as engaged.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first section of this collection—particularly the poem “Litany”—broke me open emotionally. The poet details his accidentally shooting his brother when they were kids. Reading his poems is an insight into piecing together a self after such a shatter. I’m less connected to the mythology poems, but I still like them and admire the spareness of the poems.