Realm of the Possible

by Sharon Dolin

Overview

“At one level, these poems provide the rich, patient narrative of a tapestry: Here is a woman weeping on the subway. Here are jeans hanging in the light and air of a foreign city. Here are chairs, coffee-cups, fountains, and roasted almonds. But the strength of this book is that, in poem after poem, the tapestry changes to a living, hurtful theatre: the poems keep breaking their won elegant surface to reveal the shadows of loss and memory and fear. These fine poems pull the reader in—enchanting disturbing, and consoling, all at the same time.” (Eavan Boland)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781884800573
Publisher:	Four Way Books
Publication date:	12/03/2004
Pages:	96
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.30(d)

Read an Excerpt

Little no-name beach I return to four years later with you has a name and water as blue as the finest ultramarine of the painters of the cinquecento (that's where it all gathers and remains) as in the sky to lose myself if not for you who waits at the shore reading- Panama hat on head: my personal steeple my true north my great fish of the air

Table of Contents

Life Is Not What You • Japanese Beatles • Uncanny • Realm of the Possible • Betrayal • Berzerkly • Roman Punch • Eyed • Filene's Basement • The Dance • Forms of Mastery • Amber • Verona at Dusk • The Problem of Desertion • Summer's Pitcher • Geniza • Final Labor • On the Unmiraculous • The Apology • Mortal Love • Rain • The Scapegoat • Firenze Dream • Blue Dutch Tin • Broken Chair • The Bat • Reawakening • Past the Allowable Limit of Grief • Opening the Scroll • Spring Rites • Climbing Mount Sinai • Believers in Mercy • My Soul's Wardrobe • Osgood Pond • Olivetta • Krupp's Walk • Thr Naturalist Declares Her Ignorance • Stroke • The Seagull • Aubade • On Reading Amichai's "Open Closed Open" While Suckling Samuel • The Shadow • Musing on a Bruise • Hands • Come Back • Psalm • The White Line

What People are Saying About This

Jane Hirshfield

“Far-traveling in both interior and outer realms, Sharon Dolin’s poetry ranges from the exploration of love, loss, and mourning to the unexpected kinships of New York daily life to the spiritual celebration of new motherhood. Realm of the Possible is a book of hard-won recognitions and sensuous praises, precise, moving and replete with a life spoken full, a world given name in all its parts.”

Eavan Boland

“At one level, these poems provide the rich, patient narrative of a tapestry: Here is a woman weeping on the subway. Here are jeans hanging in the light and air of a foreign city. Here are chairs, coffee-cups, fountains, and roasted almonds. But the strength of this book is that, in poem after poem, the tapestry changes to a living, hurtful theatre: the poems keep breaking their won elegant surface to reveal the shadows of loss and memory and fear. These fine poems pull the reader in—enchanting disturbing, and consoling, all at the same time.”

Editorial Reviews

Far-traveling in both interior and outer realms, Sharon Dolin’s poetry ranges from the exploration of love, loss, and mourning to the unexpected kinships of New York daily life to the spiritual celebration of new motherhood. Realm of the Possible is a book of hard-won recognitions and sensuous praises, precise, moving and replete with a life spoken full, a world given name in all its parts.” (Jane Hirshfield)

From the Publisher