A Primer on Parallel Lives

by Dan Gerber

“Dan Gerber tenderly reels his readers through the ‘beautiful movie’ he calls the passing of time on earth in a language completely unadorned and Zen-like in its quietude. The thing itself carries the weight of these poems, which recall the deep imagery of Vallejo, Neruda and Wright.”—Rain Taxi

“Gerber’s got a Spanish soul. A bloody, dusty, old Spanish soul. He’s got Machado, Lorca, and Jiménez all rolled up in him. And when he does the lyric, or the meditative, it speaks to the universe and to us.”—Line Break

Dan Gerber is a master of layered, bittersweet imagery. In his seventh book of poems, he writes of childhood misgivings and fears, the oak savannah landscape of California’s central coast, and a near-mystical relationship with nature. As novelist John Nichols once wrote of Gerber’s poetry, “Dan Gerber has an exquisitely muted, yet profound understanding of tragedy, love, family, and the haunting vagaries of nature.”

“Some Distance”

I wanted to be a stone in the field,
simply that,
and then I wanted to be the grass around it,
and then the cattle grazing
under the too blue sky,
and then the blue,
which has of itself
no substance,
and yet goes on and on and on.

Dan Gerber is the author of a dozen books of poetry, fiction, essays, and memoir. He has earned the Mark Twain Award, Book of the Year honors from ForeWord Magazine, and inclusion in The Best American Poetry. He lives in Santa Ynez, California.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

Reviews

[Ambrose Miles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful excellent poetry!

[Tom Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's gratifying to see a writer continually develop over a lifetime (his and mine!). Some writers go through a career being pretty much the same stylistically and thematically. Dan Gerber's work has been steadily deepening over the decades, his images sharpening and his insights becoming more penetrating.

One of my favorite poems (from an earlier collection) is "A Last Bridge Home," which I memorized some years ago so that I can call it up at will.

[Quail Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, thoughtful poetry about being and existing among everything in the world. I could read this collection of poetry over and over again. I feel like I’m flying above everything and looking over the world, seeing what it’s like to be many different people and things.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eloquently written these are poems of memory which reverberate on the inside of our skin in their contrast of memories made and our reconstruction of them. Highly recommended

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this collection when first bought. After almost 12 years my understanding and closeness to the poems has only grown.

[Lawrence Sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Gerber's seventh book of poetry and maybe his best. W.S. Merwin said of this collection "His latest work...achieves a transparent immediacy." Like this -

Grass Mountain

My old dog's eyes stray with me,
though she's gone,
and take my eyes now, seeing in
to what is looking out, not longing,
but how to see the thing inside itself,
the sky in sky, the grass in grass,
but not just grass and sky.

A thousand years ago or so
we came to a hilltop,
and paused to catch our breath, like lovers
unaware of being two,
or even one.

I pause there now again,

The yarrow smells like sage.

We are what wants to be.