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Review
A voice that has become utterly distinctive: restless, passionate, dogged, and uncompromising in its quest to find and speak the truth...an intelligence both compassionate and fierce'. The result is four decades of poems that delve into everything from the most joyous and private matters of the heart (he is one of our greatest love poets) to the chaos and horror of politics, warfare, and our species' seemingly innate penchant for cruelty and self-destruction. Like Whitman's, his world view is simultaneously micro- and macrocosmic. Williams' rangy, elastic lines are measures of thought, and his syntax enacts the ways in which the mind moves through mood and memory, speculation and logic. Because the voice is both cerebral and muscular in its reflexes, the music it makes feels spontaneous, individual, and directly representative of the experience of which it sings. The poems are wholly American in this regard; their simultaneous tenderness and outrage bring to mind the music of Charles Ives. Few poets leave behind them a body of work that is global in its ambition and achievement, but C.K. Williams is one of them. His poetry will speak to future generations, as it does to us, of what it was to be human in our time. --Chase Twichell
As much scope and truthfulness as any American poetry since Lowell and Berryman. --Michael Hofmann, TLS
As much scope and truthfulness as any American poetry since Lowell and Berryman. --Michael Hofmann, TLS
Product Description
C.K. Williams is the most challenging American poet of his generation, a poet of intense and searching originality who makes lyric sense out of the often brutal realities of everyday life. His poems are startlingly intense anecdotes on love, death, secrets and wayward thought, examining the inner life in precise, daring language.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm a fan of 20th century North American narrative poetry, like Charles Buckowski for example, and this came along as a recommended collection of that style. And wow. It is sometimes brutal to the point were you almost feel that you cannot understand or comprehend the message, but for the most part it hits hard and you really feel it. And this could put you off, I accept that. The narrative style of minimal structure and rhyme doesn't suit everyone either, but I love the gritty feel to it. The subject matters are all sex, injury, damage, politics and hurt, and this reinforces the modern feel to it; even when some of the poems are twenty years old and the situation they describe is dated, the emotions they express are as pertinent as ever. It gives a crystal sharp insight into a mind that isn't lost in cotton wool, and that can be disturbing or rewarding depending on how brave you are.
I'm not well placed to say whether this is a good, representative collection of this author. But I am well placed to say that this is a very fine collection of contemporary poetry. And I loved it, and I'd recommend it warmly.
I'm not well placed to say whether this is a good, representative collection of this author. But I am well placed to say that this is a very fine collection of contemporary poetry. And I loved it, and I'd recommend it warmly.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
A gorgeous work
14 Oct 2008
Format:Hardcover
C.K. Williams is one of my favorite poets. His poems have a strong narrative element which makes them extremely compelling. They are also, of course, highly personal, and it is wonderful to have the chance to read such a lengthy collection and reflect on how he's matured as a person and developed as a poet over the decades. I'll quote just one, a tribute he wrote to a dear friend:
"...to be able/to tell oneself that once/one knew a man wholly
unsusceptible/to triviality,/bitterness or rancor,/who'd fashioned himself/with such dedication/and integrity
that he'd been released/from those resentments/and envies that make/the fullest life seem mean:
you life was never mean,/never not inspiring."
"...to be able/to tell oneself that once/one knew a man wholly
unsusceptible/to triviality,/bitterness or rancor,/who'd fashioned himself/with such dedication/and integrity
that he'd been released/from those resentments/and envies that make/the fullest life seem mean:
you life was never mean,/never not inspiring."
C. K.Williams poetry
6 Feb 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was introduced to the poetry of C. K. Williams through an online video of Mr. Williams reading some of his works. I liked his rhythms of normal speech interwined with almost musical cadences and the everydayness of his topics. Deeper feelings tucked into everydayness. After having heard him read his works, it was easier to read this collection.
Anyone interested in poetry should give this author a try. And by-the-by, the book arrive in very good condition.
Anyone interested in poetry should give this author a try. And by-the-by, the book arrive in very good condition.
0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Exactly as expected.
15 Feb 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was shipped promptly and arrived in the condition it was described. My husband loves CK Williams and was pleased with this gift.
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