New & Selected Poems

by Stephen Berg

Overview

A major collection of works by the founder and co-editor of American Poetry Review, author of Grief and In It. "Sharp, thoughtful, and wonderfully wild."—Library Journal¶"Stephen Berg is a well-kept secret....Berg plies the reader's attention with simplicity and candor."—American Bookseller

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781556590436
Publisher:	Copper Canyon Press
Publication date:	07/01/1991
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Stephen Berg, founding editor of American Poetry Review, is the author of two dozen books of poetry and translations. He is a professor of English at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

1909
1911
1914
1922
1945
Alone
And The Scream
The Answer
At A Friend's Birthay Party In The Garden At Night
At The Door
Bandage
Behind Us
Between Us
Both
Bread; Andres Eloy Blanco
Brothers
Cherries
The Coat
Crutches
The Daughters
A Day
Desnos Reading The Palms Of Men On Their Way To The Gas Chambers
Don't Forget
Dreaming With A Friend
Driving Out Again At Night
Dust
Eating Outside
Endings
First Cold
Following It
For The Ghost Of Li Po
Fragment, 1959
From The Bridge
A God
Good
Gooseberries (after Reading The Chekhov Story)
Gratitude
Heartache
The Holes
Homage To The Afterlife
In Blue Light
In Death I Know Well Enough All Things End In Emptiness
In It
In The Evening
In Washington Square
Iowa
It Is
The Kiss
Lament
Last Elegy
Last Meeting
Leaves
Lightbulb
Lowell: Self-portrait
Memory
Milk
Mother Political
Music
New Year's
No Word
Not That
Nothingness
Oblivion
Ollie, Answer Me
On The Steps
On This Side Of The River
One
Page 256
People Trying To Love
Prayer
Red Weed
Remembering And Forgetting
The Rocks
Roses
Rubber Rats
Sad Invective
Self-potrait At Six
Shoeshine
Sister Ann
Sketch
The Soul
Sticks
Summer Twilight
Sunday Afternoon
Talking
Tashkent Blossoms, 1944
This Cold
Thread
Three Voices
Through Glass
Times
To Charlie
To My Friends
To The Being We Are
To The Same Place
Two Fragments
Two Little Songs
Uncle Will, The Gardener
Unfinished Double Sonnet
The Visit
Visiting The Stone
The Voice
Wanting To Be Heavier
What I Wanted To Say
Why Are We Here?
A Wife Talks To Herself
William Carlos Williams Reading His Poems
With Akhmatova At The Black Gates
Writing Class
You

Editorial Reviews

Includes Berg's selection from The daughters (1971), Grief (1975), With Akhmatova at the black gates (1981), and In it (1986), along with new poems, including a selection from his work-in- progress, Shaving, and concluding with the long poem, "Homage to the Afterlife." Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Culled from four previous collections and presenting 10 new lyrics, a selection of short prose pieces and a 20-page meditation ("Homage to the Afterlife"), this volume is unified by themes of family life, friendship, death and respect for the great modern writers. Berg's poetry is largely informed by such earlier sources as Whitman and Williams, and his latest effort is a pastiche of his private experience and diverse reading. The poems often fall flat, lacking the energy that comes from originality. "Last Elegy," for instance, a confessional lyric in the style of Robert Lowell in which the speaker remembers sitting with his dying father and watching Jack Nicklaus on television, examines the ironies and disjunctions of contemporary life without Lowell's linguistic dazzle or sharp wit. The long sequence of adaptations from Berg's earlier book With Akhmatova at the Black Gates is particularly disappointing. The poems sentimentalize Akhmatova's hardships, missing the perfect colloquialism and delicacy of her language. Among the new pieces, the prose section is the strongest, providing Berg with a more natural medium for his voice.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher