Different Hours: Poems

Be the first to write a review
Pick Up In Store

Pick Up in Store

Reserve and pick up in 60 minutes at your local store

Paperback (1 ED)
$14.21
BN.com price
$15.95 List Price (Save 11%)
Marketplace (New and Used)
from
$1.25
$15.95 List Price (Save 92%)
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
All (32)  
Used (21)  
New (11)  
Close
Sort by
Page 1 of 4
Showing 1 – 10 of 32 (4 pages)
$1.25
(Save 92%)
Nettextstore
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(1339)

Condition:

New — never opened or used in original packaging.

Like New — packaging may have been opened. A "Like New" item is suitable to give as a gift.

Very Good — may have minor signs of wear on packaging but item works perfectly and has no damage.

Good — item is in good condition but packaging may have signs of shelf wear/aging or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Acceptable — item is in working order but may show signs of wear such as scratches or torn packaging. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Used — An item that has been opened and may show signs of wear. All specific defects should be noted in the Comments section associated with each item.

Refurbished — A used item that has been renewed or updated and verified to be in proper working condition. Not necessarily completed by the original manufacturer.

Good
2002 Paperback Good Books have varying amounts of wear and highlighting. Usually ships within 24 hours in quality packaging. Satisfaction guaranteed. May contain ... highlighting/underlining/notes/etc. This item may not include any CDs, Infotracs, Access cards or other supplementary material. Before leaving negitive feedback please contact us. Read more Show Less

Ships from: Lincoln, NE

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 88%)
One Planet Books
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(2467)

Condition: Good
SOME HIGHLIGHTING AND PRICE STICKER

Ships from: Columbia, MO

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$1.99
(Save 88%)
MotorCityBooks
Seller since 2009

Feedback rating:

(5054)

Condition: Acceptable
With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, Best Prices.

Ships from: Brownstown, MI

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$2.25
(Save 86%)
Open Books Ltd
Seller since 2011

Feedback rating:

(83)

Condition: Good
2002 Paperback Good Open Books is a Non-profit literacy organization and proceeds from the sale benefit literacy programs.

Ships from: Chicago, IL

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$3.36
(Save 79%)
Thomas Mammone
Seller since 2010

Feedback rating:

(6)

Condition: Very Good
2002 Trade paperback Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 121 p. Audience: General/trade.

Ships from: farmingdale, NY

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$3.56
(Save 78%)
spellbound PA
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(9714)

Condition: Like New
Fine 0393322327 LIKE NEW. Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages.

Ships from: McKeesport, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$3.99
(Save 75%)
spellbound PA
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(9714)

Condition: Like New
1/1/2002 Paperback Fine 0393322327 LIKE NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line ... on bottom/exterior edge of pages. Read more Show Less

Ships from: McKeesport, PA

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$4.56
(Save 71%)
Extremely_Reliable
Seller since 2007

Feedback rating:

(3210)

Condition: Good
Buy with confidence. Excellent Customer Service & Return policy.

Ships from: Richmond, TX

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
$5.00
(Save 69%)
The Unskoolbookshop VT
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(48)

Condition: Very Good
Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 2000 Soft Cover Very Good Nice, clean, tight, unmarked copy. Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. A wise and graceful new collection by ... one of our "major, indispensable poets" (Sidney Lea). The mysteries of Eros and Thanatos, the stubborn endurance of mind and body in the face of diminishment--these are the undercurrents of Stephen Dunn's eleventh volume. "I am interested in exploring the 'different' hours, " he says, "not only of one's life, but also of the larger historical and philosophical life beyond the personal." Read more Show Less

Ships from: Brattleboro, VT

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
$5.00
(Save 69%)
Krickett's Bookshop MI
Seller since 2005

Feedback rating:

(147)

Condition: Very Good
Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. 2001 Trade Paperback Very Good Very Good Very good plus.

Ships from: Battle Creek, MI

Usually ships in 1-2 business days

  • •Canadian
  • •International
  • •Standard, 48 States
  • •Standard (AK, HI)
  • •Express, 48 States
  • •Express (AK, HI)
Page 1 of 4
Showing 1 – 10 of 32 (4 pages)
Close
Sort by
NOOK Book (eBook)
$12.10
BN.com price
$22.00 List Price (Save 45%)

Available on NOOK devices and apps

  • Nook Devices
  • NOOK
  • NOOK Color
  • NOOK Tablet
  • Tablet/Phone
  • NOOK for iPad
  • NOOK for iPhone
  • NOOK for Android
  • NOOK for Android (Tablet)
  • NOOK Kids for iPad
  • PC/Mac
  • NOOK Study
  • NOOK for PC
  • NOOK for Mac

Want a NOOK? Explore Now

More About This Book

Overview

A wise and graceful new collection by one of our "major, indispensable poets" (Sidney Lea). The mysteries of Eros and Thanatos, the stubborn endurance of mind and body in the face of diminishment—these are the undercurrents of Stephen Dunn's eleventh volume. "I am interested in exploring the 'different' hours," he says, "not only of one's life, but also of the larger historical and philosophical life beyond the personal."

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble
The poems in Stephen Dunn's 11th collection, Different Hours -- winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry -- find their inspiration in the details of everyday life. As one poems puts it: "Use what's lying around the house./ Make it simple and sad." Dunn's work here is, as always, phenomenally accessible, using common language and conversational verse to address issues associated with love, age, and death. But what truly makes these poems stand apart is the giant leap the poet takes from the personal, "the commonplace and its contingencies," to the historical, the philosophical, and the universal.
Alicia Suskin Ostriker
[L]eads us down a trail of wisdom, teaching us to live like the poet.
More Reviews (3) Fewer Reviews
Gerald Stern
Wisdom might be something we could only learn through a language like Stephen Dunn's, unbearably fearless and beautiful.
Publishers Weekly
This sensitive 11th book from Dunn (Loosestrife) largely sticks to familiar territory: in one central poem, a "master" advises the speaker to "Use what's lying around the house./ Make it simple and sad." Dunn follows that advice unwaveringly: his short lyrics in conversational language address the difficulties and small victories of everyday life--fears on turning 60, marital quarrels, suburban weather, "the commonplace and its contingencies." Like Gerald Stern and Philip Booth, Dunn strives to describe the travails of ordinary people in language not only simplified but generalized: a friend's divorce leads the speaker to say "no one can know what goes on/ in the pale trappings of bedrooms," while scary headlines and advancing age prompt the remark that "it's tempting to believe/ we lived in simpler times." Poems about places offer few surprises: Italy yields "the chosen gloomy beauty of a tourist town," and a series of poems about Dunn's native South Jersey produce phrases almost as stale. Many poems try so hard for their transparency that they become predictable, so hard to be representative that their speakers seem too normal to be true, even the usually multi-valent Odysseus, who here "sailed through storm and wild sea/ as if his beloved were all that ever mattered." Such mythical alter egos, when they appear, disappear into the dominant mode here, that of a quiet family man who wants to be kind and to marvel at the ordinary, "amazed/ that the paper has been delivered." Fans will pick up this book to get news of his latest doings, but despite its accessibility, it will draw few new subscribers. (Nov.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
KLIATT
If it is true that the smart man is one who simply understands the complexity of the questions, this Pulitzer Prize-winning collection is filled with an honest wisdom, one that confronts the classic distinction between appearance and reality. Dunn's world and poems are filled with the paradoxical, with what is not apparent, with a depth that challenges the conventional. "When the sun rises I think of collisions and AK-47s. / It's my mother's fault, who praised and loved me, / sent me into the dreadful world as if / it would tell me a story I would understand." These pieces explore the facets, the varying planes and changing viewpoints that fascinate us. "What she sees as affection / he means as good work." They transcend the veneer of the socially acceptable: "...it seems / the cold and the righteous / are no less dangerous / than the furious, the crazed.... Everywhere the justified." They expose the intolerant, the dogmatists. "It's why the terrified and the simple / latch onto one story, / just one version of the great mystery." Yet Dunn embraces this complicated and entangled world, attempts to make it meaningful. "When I listened to my wife's story on the phone / I knew I'd take it from her, tell it / every which way until it had an order / and a deceptive period at the end. That's what / I always do in the face of helplessness, / make some arrangements if I can." The arrangements Dunn makes don't compromise the integrity of the intricacies he so clearly sees. This is an outstanding collection. Category: Poetry. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Norton, 121p., , Barre, MA

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780393322323
  • Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
  • Publication date: 1/28/2002
  • Edition description: 1 ED
  • Pages: 128
  • Sales rank: 695,121
  • Product dimensions: 5.60 (w) x 8.20 (h) x 0.40 (d)

Meet the Author

Stephen Dunn's many awards include the Pulitzer Prize for his collection Different Hours. He lives in Frostburg, Maryland.

Read an Excerpt




Chapter One


Before the Sky Darkens


Sunsets, incipient storms, the tableaus
of melancholy—maybe these are
the Saturday night-events
to take your best girl to. At least then
there might be moments of vanishing beauty
before the sky darkens,
and the expectation of happiness
would hardly exist
and therefore might be possible.
More and more you learn to live
with the unacceptable.
You sense the ever-hidden God
retreating even farther,
terrified or embarrassed.
You might as well be a clown,
big silly clothes, no evidence of desire.
That's how you feel, say, on a Tuesday.
Then out of the daily wreckage
comes an invitation
with your name on it. Or more likely,
that best girl of yours offers you,
once again, a small local kindness.
You open your windows to good air
blowing in from who knows where,
which you gulp and deeply inhale
as if you have a death sentence. You have.
All your life, it seems, you've been appealing it.
Night sweats and useless strategem. Reprieves.


SIXTY


Because in my family the heart goes first
and hardly anybody makes it out of his fifties,
I think I'll stay up late with a few bandits
of my choice and resist good advice.
I'll invent a secret scroll lost by Egyptians
and reveal its contents: the directions
to your house, recipes for forgiveness.
History saysmyventricles are stone alleys,
my heart itself a city with a terrorist
holed up in the mayor's office.
I'm in the mood to punctuate
only with that maker of promises, the colon:
next, next, next, its says, God bless it.
As García Lorca may have written: some people
forget to live as if a great arsenic lobster
could fall on their heads at any moment.
My sixtieth birthday is tomorrow.
Come, play poker with me,
I want to be taken to the cleaners.
I've had it with all stingy-hearted sons of bitches.
A heart is to be spent. As for me, I'll share
my mulcher with anyone who needs to mulch.
It's time to give up the search for the invisible.
On the best of days there's little more
than the faintest intimations. The millennium,
my dear, is sure to disappoint us.
I think I'll keep on describing things
to ensure that they really happened.


EVANESCENCE


The silhouette of a mountain. Above it
a dark halo of rain. Dusk's light
fading, holding on. He thinks he's seen
some visible trace of some absent thing.
Knows he won't talk about it, can't.
He arrives home to the small winter pleasures
of a clothes tree, a hatrack,
his heroine in a housedress saying hello.
He could be anyone aware of an almost,
not necessarily sad. He could be a brute
suddenly chastened by the physical world.
They talk about the storm in the mountains
destined for the lowlands, the béarnaise sauce
and the fine cut of beef it improves.
The commonplace and its contingincies,
his half-filled cup, the monstrous
domesticated by the six o'clock news—
these are his endurances,
in fact his privileges, if he has any sense.
Later while they make love, he thinks of
Mantle's long home run in the '57 Series.
He falls to sleep searching for a word.


AT THE RESTAURANT


Life would be unbearable
if we made ourselves conscious of it.
—Fernando Pessoa
Six people are too many people
and a public place the wrong place
for what you're thinking—
stop this now.
Who do you think you are?
The duck à l'orange is spectacular,
the flan the best in town.
But there among your friends
is the unspoken, as ever,
chatter and gaiety its familiar song.
And there's your chronic emptiness
spiraling upward in search of words
you'll dare not say
without irony.
You should have stayed at home.
It's part of the social contract
to seem to be where your body is,
and you've been elsewhere like this,
for Christ's sake, countless times;
behave, feign.
Certainly you believe a part of decency
is to overlook, to let pass?
Praise the Caesar salad. Praise Susan's
black dress, Paul's promotion and raise.
Inexcusable, the slaughter in this world.
Insufficient, the merely decent man.


The Death of God


When the news filtered to the angels
they were overwhelmed by their sudden aloneness.
Long into the night they waited for instructions;
the night was quieter than any night they'd known.
I don't have a thought in my head, one angel lamented.
Others worried, Is there such a thing as an angel now?
New to questioning, dashed by the dry light
of reason, some fell into despair. Many disappeared.
A few wandered naturally toward power, were hired
by dictators who needed something like an angel
to represent them to the world.
These angels spoke the pure secular word.
They murdered sweetly and extolled the greater good.
The Dark Angel himself was simply amused.
The void grew, and was fabulously filled.
Vast stadiums and elaborate malls—
the new cathedrals—were built
where people cheered and consumed.
At the nostalgia shops angel trinkets
and plastic crucifixes lined the shelves.
The old churches were homes for the poor.
And yet before meals and at bedtime
and in the iconographies of dreams,
God took his invisible place in the kingdom of need.
Disaffected minstrels made and sang His songs.
The angels were given breath and brain.
This all went on while He was dead to the world.
The Dark Angel observed it, waiting as ever.
On these things his entire existence depended.

POINTS UNKNOWN
A Century of Great Exploration

Edited by David Roberts

W. W. Norton & Company

Copyright © 2000 David Roberts. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 13
I
Before the Sky Darkens 19
Sixty 21
Evanescence 23
At the Restaurant 24
The Death of God 26
Capriccio Italien 28
Old Dogs 30
Odysseu's Secret 32
What Goes On 34
Their Divorce 36
Dog Weather 38
Optimism 40
Androgyne 41
Zero Hour 43
The Hours 44
II
The Party 47
Simpler Times 49
Our Parents 51
Empathy 52
The Last Hours 55
Luck 57
The Sexual Revolution 59
The Same Cold 61
Losing Steps 63
After 66
So Far 67
Different Hours 69
III
The Reverse Side 73
The Overt 74
John & Mary 77
Art 79
Rubbing 81
A Spiritual Woman 83
Irresistible 85
Returning from an Artist's Studio 87
Story 89
Visiting the Master 91
IV
The Metaphysicians of South Jersey 95
His Town 97
Another Man 99
Men in the Sky 101
Emperors 102
One Moment and the Next in the Pine Barrens 104
Afterlife 106
Chokecherry 108
Nature 109
Burying the Cat 111
Oklahoma City 113
Backwaters 115
Phantom 117
A Postmortem Guide 119

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review
( 0 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines
Add Recommendations
Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

  • - HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
  • - Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
  • - Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
  • - Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
  • - Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
  • - Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
  • - Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

  • - By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
  • - Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
  • - See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.
Search for Products You'd Like to Recommend

Recommend other products that relate to your review. Just search for them below and share!

Create a Pen Name

Your Pen Name is your unique identiy on BN.com. It will appear on the reviews you write and other website activities. Your Pen Name cannot be edited, changed or deleted once submitted.

Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously

We're sorry, but penname is already taken.

Please select one of the following:
Your Pen Name can be any combination of alphanumeric characters (plus - and _), and must be at least two characters long.

Continue Anonymously

penname is available!

By visiting the BN.com website or marking a purchase on BN.com, a User is deemed to have accepted the Terms of Use.

Continue Anonymously

Welcome, penname

You have successfully created your Pen Name. Start enjoying the benefits of the BN.com Community today.

Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted December 28, 2010

    No text was provided for this review.

  • Anonymous

    Posted August 5, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews
If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble
Why is this product inappropriate?
Comments (optional)
500 character limit