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Product Description
Book Description
This rich volume reflects the development of Berrys poetic sensibility.. The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry gathers one hundred poems written between 1957 and 1996. Chosen by the author, these pieces have been selected from each of nine previously published collections. The rich work in this volume reflects the development of Berrys poetic sensibility over four decades. Focusing on themes that have occupied his work for years--land and nature, family and community, tradition as the groundwork for life and culture-- The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry celebrates the broad range of this vital and transforming poet. In elegy, subversive call, song, or meditation, Wendell Berrys clear yet complex vision of what it means to be human is rare in American poetry. In these one hundred poems, drawn from nine previous collections, Berrys play of sound and syntax moves in our minds like something just remembered, and remains with us like an afterimage on the eye. He loves the pleasure of daily work outdoors, and his love of family and community is centered in a place on earth.As an activist and farmer, Berrys poems are balanced by reverence. With care and fidelity, Berrys recurring themes luminesce into examples of faith, fortitude, and action. In these scattershot days of spins and polls, E-mails and answering machines, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry is a contemplative and inspiring hymn to life.
About the Author
Wendell Berry lives and works with his wife, Tanya Berry, on their farm in Port Royal, Kentucky. An essayist, novelist, and poet, he is the author of more than thirty books. Berry has received numerous awards, including the T. S. Eliot Award, the John Hay Award, the Lyndhurst Prize, and the Aiken-Taylor Award for Poetry from The Sewanee Review.
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First Sentence
"In the essential prose of things, the apple tree stands up, emphatic among the accidents of the afternoon." Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
"In the essential prose of things, the apple tree stands up, emphatic among the accidents of the afternoon." Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Poems "quiet in heart, and in eye clear.",
By
This review is from: The Selected Poems Of Wendell Berry (Paperback)
"I am an amateur poet, working for the love of the work and to my own satisfaction--which are two of the conditions of 'self-employment,' as I understand it" (p. xvii-xviii), Wendell Berry writes in the Preface to his "Sabbath Poems," A TIMBERED CHOIR. "I belong to no school of poetry, but rather to my love of poems by other poets" (p. xviii). Berry is a Kentucky farmer, a poet, a novelist, and one of my favorite writers. By way of preface to this collection, he writes, "In a time that breaks/ in cutting pieces all around,/ when men, voiceless/ against thing-ridden men,/ set themselves on fire, it seems/ too difficult and rare/ to think of the life of a man/ grown whole in the world,/ as peace and in place./ But having thought of it/ I am beyond the time/ I might have sold my hands/ or sold my voice and mind/ to the arguments of power/ that go blind against/ what they would destroy."Themes of earth, marriage, family, work and death weave the 100 poems of this worthwhile collection together. "Put your hands/ into the earth," Berry writes in "Song in a Year of Catastrophe." "Live close/ to the ground. Learn the darkness./ Gather round you all/ the things that you love, name/ their names, prepare/ to lose them. It will be/ as if all you know were turned/ around within your body" (p. 74). In "Marriage," Berry writes to his wife, Tanya: "How hard it is for me, who live/ in the excitement of women/ and have the desire for them/ in my mouth like salt. Yet/ you have taken me and quieted me./ You have been such a light to me/ that other women have been/ your shadows" (p. 31). "And we pray, not/ for a new earth or heaven," he writes in "The Wild Geese," but to be/ quiet in heart, and in eye/ clear. What we need is here" (p. 90). Enough said. G. Merritt
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wendell Berry Poetry Sings Praise,
By Meadow Glen Farm "Brian" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Selected Poems Of Wendell Berry (Paperback)
Mr. Berry has written honest, real-life poetry for over 40 years. One who is unfamiliar with his work will find in these selections the essence of Berry's writing. His work is contemplative, meditative, spiritually centering, and genuine. His poems range from songs of praise for the Creation to elegies that rightly reflect death and grief. In between one seeswhat can be good in communities, in families, in friendships, in marriage, and in earthly work. These selections will lead one to search out and read Berry's other beautiful books of poetry! 8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Four decades from Kentucky,
By Gary Sprandel - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Hardcover)
Spanning nearly four decades, Berry's poems are firmly attached to his hillside farm in Northern Kentucky, but with appeal to all regions. Berry writes of fidelity to the land, sustainable farming, community, and marriage. He writes reverently and with faith, but does not broach religion directly. His poems speak for a longer time frame, of waiting to find out more (about the land or a partner). On first reading you might think this is pastoral nostalgia, but is an exciting new view of community and stewardship. The poems are very personal and Berry selects what to reveal. He writes about marriage, despite "the excitement of women and have desire for them in my mouth like salt". He writes of what he learned from his father "A steer should graze and thrive whenever he lowers his head". This is good poetry for those wanting to reflect on land and commitment. 5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry,
By Roger Adamson "Roger" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Selected Poems Of Wendell Berry (Paperback)
Poems written in everyday language, not pretentious academic words. They express what is in the hearts of everyone. Poems that I wish I could write.
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