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The Last Uncle
"Autumnal and subdued...movingly chronicles loss, fear, the passing of time."―Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World In The Last Uncle , Linda Pastan writes, "If death is everywhere we look, / at least let's marry it to beauty." The poems in this new collection deal with loss and the difficult transition between generations, but they are also about love and landscape and the many pleasures of the imagination.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
About the author
Linda Pastan
53 books66 followersIn 1932, Linda Pastan was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx. She graduated from Radcliffe College and received an MA from Brandeis University.
She is the author of Traveling Light (W. W. Norton & Co., 2011); Queen of a Rainy Country (2006); The Last Uncle (2002); Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998 (1998), which was nominated for the National Book Award; An Early Afterlife (l995); Heroes In Disguise (1991), The Imperfect Paradise (1988), a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; PM/AM: New and Selected Poems (l982), which was nominated for the National Book Award; The Five Stages of Grief (l978), and A Perfect Circle of Sun (l971).
About Pastan's The Five Stages of Grief, the poet May Sarton said, "It is about all her integrity that has made Linda Pastan such a rewarding poet. Nothing is here for effect. There is no self-pity, but in this new book she has reached down to a deeper layer and is letting the darkness in. These poems are full of foreboding and acceptance, a wry unsentimental acceptance of hard truth. They are valuable as signposts, and in the end, as arrivals. Pastan's signature is growth."
Among her many awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Dylan Thomas Award, the Di Castagnola Award, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Maurice English Award, the Charity Randall Citation, and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. She was a recipient of a Radcliffe College Distinguished Alumnae Award.
From 1991 to 1995, she served as the Poet Laureate of Maryland, and was among the staff of the Breadloaf Writers Conference for twenty years. Linda Pastan lives in Potomac, Maryland.
She is the author of Traveling Light (W. W. Norton & Co., 2011); Queen of a Rainy Country (2006); The Last Uncle (2002); Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998 (1998), which was nominated for the National Book Award; An Early Afterlife (l995); Heroes In Disguise (1991), The Imperfect Paradise (1988), a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; PM/AM: New and Selected Poems (l982), which was nominated for the National Book Award; The Five Stages of Grief (l978), and A Perfect Circle of Sun (l971).
About Pastan's The Five Stages of Grief, the poet May Sarton said, "It is about all her integrity that has made Linda Pastan such a rewarding poet. Nothing is here for effect. There is no self-pity, but in this new book she has reached down to a deeper layer and is letting the darkness in. These poems are full of foreboding and acceptance, a wry unsentimental acceptance of hard truth. They are valuable as signposts, and in the end, as arrivals. Pastan's signature is growth."
Among her many awards and honors include a Pushcart Prize, a Dylan Thomas Award, the Di Castagnola Award, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Maurice English Award, the Charity Randall Citation, and the 2003 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. She was a recipient of a Radcliffe College Distinguished Alumnae Award.
From 1991 to 1995, she served as the Poet Laureate of Maryland, and was among the staff of the Breadloaf Writers Conference for twenty years. Linda Pastan lives in Potomac, Maryland.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 20, 2019
Certain sections are better than others. The last section of poems in the book belabor the already-belabored notion that the seasons represents all kinds of literal and metaphorical births, deaths, and other parallels; the first section does a bit of thesis-statement introductory table-setting (this includes more than the mission statement verse claiming that if death is everywhere, 'let's marry it to beauty,' which everyone it seems interprets as the book's statement of purpose).
However, the middle three sections are consistently good and have particularly strong moments. Pastan's voice is not meant to swing for the rafters or leave you necessarily bowled over, but the poems here are gently arresting. Yes, these are nudges, whispers, ephemera that tilt toward, balk at, and feign acceptance of the passage of time, of death, of loss, of even more death. These mid-sections have an effervescent, autumnal feeling-tone to them that I appreciated. Thank you for offering all of these to us, Linda.
However, the middle three sections are consistently good and have particularly strong moments. Pastan's voice is not meant to swing for the rafters or leave you necessarily bowled over, but the poems here are gently arresting. Yes, these are nudges, whispers, ephemera that tilt toward, balk at, and feign acceptance of the passage of time, of death, of loss, of even more death. These mid-sections have an effervescent, autumnal feeling-tone to them that I appreciated. Thank you for offering all of these to us, Linda.
April 7, 2017
Very deep poems that flow very well from one to the other. I can see why Linda Pastan was Marylands poet laurite.
Though they were about death, most of them were not depressing. Most of them treated death as another step, some thought about how life goes on for those left behind. There were a few that were sad, but they were few and far between.
I like that fact that they are all free form poems as well. Those seam to be the hardest to write in a way that the author likes.
Though they were about death, most of them were not depressing. Most of them treated death as another step, some thought about how life goes on for those left behind. There were a few that were sad, but they were few and far between.
I like that fact that they are all free form poems as well. Those seam to be the hardest to write in a way that the author likes.
July 6, 2009
Linda Pastan's poetry speaks to me powerfully with its economy and specificity of image. This book (like her Queen of a Rainy Country) has Pastan addressing her long marriage, her muse, her experiences as a foreign traveler, and especially the approach of death -- her own and those of her closest family members. I posted a sample ("Gone Missing") on the Constant Reader Poetry board.
January 3, 2015
Linda Pastan is one of my favorite living poets. This slim collection has some good poems in it. My favorites are:
Tears
The Answering Machine
White Lies
Ghiaccio
After a Long Absence, I Return to a Site of Former Happiness
The Death of the Bee
Poison Ivy (nice twist)
In the Garden
Tears
The Answering Machine
White Lies
Ghiaccio
After a Long Absence, I Return to a Site of Former Happiness
The Death of the Bee
Poison Ivy (nice twist)
In the Garden
March 7, 2026
Poetry is not a code
the usual
connections until
lioness and
knee become
the same thing.
Though not a cure
it can console,
the way cool sheets
console
the dying flesh,
the way a glass of cold
water can be
a way station
on the unswerving
road to thirst.
the usual
connections until
lioness and
knee become
the same thing.
Though not a cure
it can console,
the way cool sheets
console
the dying flesh,
the way a glass of cold
water can be
a way station
on the unswerving
road to thirst.
August 4, 2023
Poignant and achingly forthright, the poems reflect on losses wrought by time and the consequent and often hopeful adaptations we make.
February 21, 2025
I especially liked part 2, poems about memory.
January 29, 2013
Issues of aging, death, and the loss of the previous generation permeate Pastan’s collection.
The last uncle is pushing off
in his funeral skiff (the usual
black limo) having locked
the doors behind him
on a whole generation.
(The Last Uncle)
Pastan manages to connect these themes with images from nature and art.
“Another Autumn” starts:
Another autumn, the dogwoods turning first,
their hard berries bright as drops of blood
in the oak woods where a wild fox limped past
and concludes with these lines:
I remember
how my mother in her middle age looked
at my father, knowing he would be the first to go,
and how I looked at her, the last autumn of her life,
wanting her to flee that ravished flesh
but willing her to stay.
Nostalgia and longing are evident.
I call and hear your voice
on the answering machine
weeks after your death,
(The Answering Machine)
The collection is thoughtfully arranged in numbered sections, with similar words, or connected titles, in the poems facing one another. The majority of the poems contain brief lines. Pastan is a master at imagery and metaphor.
Like old Greek widows in black
head scarves, and long, black skirts
(Crows)
There are also two “cycles” of poems-the ingeniously titled “Round the Mulberry Bush” on the days of the week, with each day representing some type of household chore (washing, ironing, sweeping, etc.). The book closes with a cycle titled “The Months.”
I appreciate Pastan’s quiet voice more with repeated readings. Her work is deceptively understandable. I say “deceptively” because I do not want to imply that her writing is simplistic; rather, that the poem itself doesn’t leave the reader struggling for comprehension. Her topics are weighty. Pastan is a poet whose work grows on the reader.
The last uncle is pushing off
in his funeral skiff (the usual
black limo) having locked
the doors behind him
on a whole generation.
(The Last Uncle)
Pastan manages to connect these themes with images from nature and art.
“Another Autumn” starts:
Another autumn, the dogwoods turning first,
their hard berries bright as drops of blood
in the oak woods where a wild fox limped past
and concludes with these lines:
I remember
how my mother in her middle age looked
at my father, knowing he would be the first to go,
and how I looked at her, the last autumn of her life,
wanting her to flee that ravished flesh
but willing her to stay.
Nostalgia and longing are evident.
I call and hear your voice
on the answering machine
weeks after your death,
(The Answering Machine)
The collection is thoughtfully arranged in numbered sections, with similar words, or connected titles, in the poems facing one another. The majority of the poems contain brief lines. Pastan is a master at imagery and metaphor.
Like old Greek widows in black
head scarves, and long, black skirts
(Crows)
There are also two “cycles” of poems-the ingeniously titled “Round the Mulberry Bush” on the days of the week, with each day representing some type of household chore (washing, ironing, sweeping, etc.). The book closes with a cycle titled “The Months.”
I appreciate Pastan’s quiet voice more with repeated readings. Her work is deceptively understandable. I say “deceptively” because I do not want to imply that her writing is simplistic; rather, that the poem itself doesn’t leave the reader struggling for comprehension. Her topics are weighty. Pastan is a poet whose work grows on the reader.
April 22, 2012
I picked up this book because I like the author, a published poet for over 40 years, and I liked the title. Pastan says that "Poetry is a way of seeing... with eyes shut." This woman has eyes open and shut at the same time. I can't begin to conjecture what she does or how she does what she does. What does she "see" with her eyes closed? How does she transform those impressions into words?
Here's a line from "The Muse":
"I search the feathery shapes of clouds hoping to find the shape of a wing."
She has.
I'm getting whiplash from the gusts.
Here's a line from "The Muse":
"I search the feathery shapes of clouds hoping to find the shape of a wing."
She has.
I'm getting whiplash from the gusts.
September 20, 2011
She warns you in the first poem: ""If death is everywhere we look, / at least let's marry it to beauty."
The problem is, death is everywhere she looks. She's a marvelous poet continuing her themes, though with increasing shades of doom. I find myself wishing she could look at a butterfly and enjoy what it is, period.
The problem is, death is everywhere she looks. She's a marvelous poet continuing her themes, though with increasing shades of doom. I find myself wishing she could look at a butterfly and enjoy what it is, period.
January 30, 2016
5 stars
The title poem is one of the best and relevant to me as my last great uncle is close to "pushing off in his funeral skiff. " Another Autumn made me cry as we recently lost my father.
But there is humor in her poems about her trip to Greece: Ghiaccio and Fibula. In The Garden absolutely depicts my relationship with my dogs. There isn't a bad poem in the collection
The title poem is one of the best and relevant to me as my last great uncle is close to "pushing off in his funeral skiff. " Another Autumn made me cry as we recently lost my father.
But there is humor in her poems about her trip to Greece: Ghiaccio and Fibula. In The Garden absolutely depicts my relationship with my dogs. There isn't a bad poem in the collection
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 17, 2011
I liked a lot of these poems, including the title poem (All my uncles have shuffled off center stage) and other poems that I made note of. Sadly, my review did not save when I last saved it and I don't feel like recreating it. Thanks, blogger.
September 20, 2015
It takes something special to move a book from my "check it out at the library" to my "I gotta buy this one" list and this is the little book that did! Favorites included "The Answering Machine", "White Lies", and "Ghiaccio".
September 7, 2009
A beautiful book of poetry - one to be read quietly, to be thought about, to be read again.
September 30, 2012
Really, really good.
Want to Read
January 5, 2014Read "Practicing": like A.
December 14, 2014
Linda Pastan is one of my favorites and she never lets me down. You either get her low quiet voice or you don't. In a storm open any one of her books and feel soothed by the depth of clear voice.
Read
January 29, 2018811.54 P291L 2002
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews