The Lunatic

by Charles Simic

Overview

From Pulitzer Prize winner and former poet laureate charles simic comes a dazzling collection of poems as original, meditative, and humorous as the poet himself

This latest volume of poetry from Charles Simic, one of America's most celebrated poets, demonstrates his revered signature style—a mix of wry melancholy and sardonic wit. These seventy luminous poems range in subject from mortality to personal ads, from the simple wonders of nature to his childhood in war-torn Yugoslavia.

For more than fifty years, Simic has delighted readers with his innovative form, quiet humor, and his rare ability to limn our interior life and concisely capture the depth of human emotion. These stunning, succinct poems validate and reinforce Simic's importance and relevance in modern poetry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062364760
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/07/2015
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	96
File size:	466 KB

About the Author

Charles Simic, poet, essayist, and translator, was born in Yugoslavia in 1938 and immigrated to the United States in 1954. Since 1967, he has published twenty books of his own poetry, including his most recent collection, New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012, in addition to a memoir and numerous books of translations for which he has received many literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award, the Griffin Prize, the MacArthur Fellowship, and the Wallace Stevens Award. Simic is a frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books and in 2007 was chosen as poet laureate of the United States. He is emeritus professor of the University of New Hampshire, where he has taught since 1973, and is distinguished visiting writer at New York University.

Table of Contents

I

Today's Menu 3

Breeder of Black Cats 4

The Lunatic 5

O Spring 6

About Myself 7

Eternities 8

Late-Night Inquiry 9

Looking for a Soul Mate 10

The Dictionary 11

The White Labyrinth 12

Stories 13

In Its Own Sweet Time 14

Meet Eddie 15

Our Gang 16

What the Old Lady Told Me 17

New Haircut 18

Some Late-Summer Evening 19

II

Let Us Be Careful 23

As You Come Over the Hill 24

Once December Comes 25

Bare Trees 26

The Light 27

Night Music 28

Don't Name the Chickens 29

Pastoral 30

As I Was Saying 31

Sinbad the Sailor 32

The Execution 33

Three Cows 34

The Missing Hours 35

The New Widow 36

The Wine 37

In My Grandmother's Time 38

Black Butterfly 39

III

The Stray 43

On the Brooklyn Bridge 45

The Escapee 46

Oh, Memory 47

The Medium 48

Past the Funeral Home 49

So Early in the Morning 50

The Bamboo Garden 51

Wei Matches 52

At the Jeweler's 53

Dead Telephone 54

Our Playhouse 55

Vices of the Evening 56

The Feast 57

The Executioner's Daughter 58

The Flea 59

Autumn Evening 60

In This Prison of Ours 61

IV

This Town Is Alright 65

Driving Around 66

Summer Evening 67

That Was Some Night 68

Eternities 69

The Light 70

Memory Train 71

The Horse 72

With One Glance 73

Migrating Birds 75

Scribbled in the Dark 76

Passing Through 78

Dark Night 79

Peep Show 80

Oh, I Said 81

Birds in Winter 82

A Quiet Afternoon 83

Thus 84

Editorial Reviews

Charles Simic’s The Lunatic is a series of short, vivid poems. Each magnifies a moment or scene to highlight its complexity, humor or strangeness. . . . Every page has its own vibrant life, sometimes troubling or poignant.” — Washington Post

“70 grimly playful poems that confirm his position among the literary elite...Unvarnished yet profound, these poems show a boundless sensitivity underneath their impish presentation...Simic’s new collection is an outlandish and masterly mixture of morbidity and heartfelt yearning.” — Publishers Weekly

“Driven by his signature melancholy and sardonic humor...Spiked with clues to larger mysteries, Simic’s unnerving puzzle poems are works of insomniac witnessing and tempered love for our precious, haunted, rapturous, and dangerous world...” — Booklist (starred review)

“Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Simic brings a nuanced, cosmopolitan perspective to his essays, which explore art, intellect, his childhood memories, and the immigrant experience in America.” — O, the Oprah Magazine

“The Lunatic, his newest poetry collection, is his thirty-sixth. Simultaneously, Ecco, his publisher, has brought out The Life of Images: Selected Prose ,... the cream of his six previous prose collections... one of our finest poets,... a singularly engaging, eminently sane American essayist.” — New York Review of Books

From the Publisher

Charles Simic’s The Lunatic is a series of short, vivid poems. Each magnifies a moment or scene to highlight its complexity, humor or strangeness. . . . Every page has its own vibrant life, sometimes troubling or poignant.

Washington Post

The Lunatic, his newest poetry collection, is his thirty-sixth. Simultaneously, Ecco, his publisher, has brought out The Life of Images: Selected Prose ,... the cream of his six previous prose collections... one of our finest poets,... a singularly engaging, eminently sane American essayist.

New York Review of Books

Driven by his signature melancholy and sardonic humor...Spiked with clues to larger mysteries, Simic’s unnerving puzzle poems are works of insomniac witnessing and tempered love for our precious, haunted, rapturous, and dangerous world...

Booklist (starred review)

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Simic brings a nuanced, cosmopolitan perspective to his essays, which explore art, intellect, his childhood memories, and the immigrant experience in America.

the Oprah Magazine O

Charles Simic’s The Lunatic is a series of short, vivid poems. Each magnifies a moment or scene to highlight its complexity, humor or strangeness. . . . Every page has its own vibrant life, sometimes troubling or poignant.

Washington Post

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Simic brings a nuanced, cosmopolitan perspective to his essays, which explore art, intellect, his childhood memories, and the immigrant experience in America.

O: the Oprah Magazine