Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth - Hardcover

Walker, Alice

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375509046 ISBN 13: 9780375509049

Publisher: Random House, 2003

Synopsis

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Color Purple gives us her first new collection of poetry in more than a decade, poems that reaffirm her as “one of the best American writers of today” (The Washington Post).

The forces of nature and the strength of the human spirit inspire the poems in Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth. Alice Walker opens us up to feeling and understanding with poems that cover a broad spectrum of emotions. With profound artistry, Walker searches for, discovers, and declares the fundamental beauty of existence, as she explores what it means to live life fully, to learn from it, and to grow both as an individual and as part of a greater spiritual community.

In “The Same as Gold,” Walker writes of the essence of grief, and of our inherent powers of love and acceptance. In “Everyone Who Works for Me,” Walker considers, with humor and grace, the frenzy that permeates modern life—a frenzy that prevents us from seeing the beauty in everything we do until we step back and take the time to look at and comprehend ourselves and those around us. In “The Love of Bodies,” Walker elegantly expresses the gratitude and tenderness we are capable of feeling for loved ones, living and dead, and the inescapable emotional connections that bind us together.

About Walker’s poetry, America has said, “In the tradition of Whitman, Walker sings, celebrates and agonizes over the ordinary vicissitudes that link and separate all of humankind,” and the same could be said about this astonishing new collection.

Despite
the hunger
we cannot
possess
more
than
this:
Peace
in a garden
of
our own.
—from Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth

About this title

About the Author

Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award for her novel The Color Purple. Her other novels include By the Light of My Father’s Smile and Possessing the Secret of Joy. She is also the author of three collections of short stories, three collections of essays, five previous volumes of poetry, and several children’s books. Born in Eatonton, Georgia, Walker now lives in northern California.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Alice Walker’s poetry

“A sensitive, spirited, and intelligent poet. Feeling is channeled into a style that is direct and sharp....Wit and tenderness combine into humanity.”
—Poetry, about Once

“In these poems there’s the power of a mind’s concentrated passion....Walker’s language moves among griefs, loves, hopes....There’s a compassion in the poems that is not only painfully earned but has, each time, to be earned over again—and it is this that gives it its authenticity.”
—Denise Levertov, author of Life in the Forest, about Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning

From the Inside Flap

Prize–winning author of <b>The Color Purple</b> gives us her first new collection of poetry in more than a decade, poems that reaffirm her as “one of the best American writers of today” (<i>The Washington Post</i>).<br><br>The forces of nature and the strength of the human spirit inspire the poems in <b>Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth</b>. Alice Walker opens us up to feeling and understanding with poems that cover a broad spectrum of emotions. With profound artistry, Walker searches for, discovers, and declares the fundamental beauty of existence, as she explores what it means to live life fully, to learn from it, and to grow both as an individual and as part of a greater spiritual community. <br><br>In “The Same as Gold,” Walker writes of the essence of grief, and of our inherent powers of love and acceptance. In “Everyone Who Works for Me,” Walker considers, with humor and grace, the frenzy that permeates modern lif

Reviews

"You/ are/ the sister/ The big/ Sister/ As hero," Alice Walker writes near the beginning of her sixth volume of poems: "The one who sees/ The one who listens/ The one who guides/ Teaches/ & protects." Some of Walker's fans may feel this way about the author herself, whose decades of literary production and political activism include several bestselling novels, one Pulitzer for The Color Purple, influential essays about social change (most recently, Sent by Earth) and other much-acknowledged work in gender studies and African-American letters. Walker's poems have long been her warmest, least artful utterances, invoking the solidarity and the compassion she invites her readers to feel: this thick book of short-lined poems extends those goals, exploring and praising friendship, romantic love, home cooking, the peace movement, ancestors, ethnic diversity and particularly admirable strong women, among them the primatologist Jane Goodall. Some poems address topics of recent vintage, such as post-9/11 discrimination ("If you/ Want to show/ Your love/ For America// Smile/ When you see/ His/ Turban/ Rosepink"). Other work continues Walker's longer-term spiritual and ecological interests: the poet (who subtitled her 1990 collection Earthling Poems) now writes "Divine Mother/ Keep on praying/ For us/ All Earthlings/ All children/ Of this awesome place/ Not one of us/ Knowing/ Why we're here/ Except to Be." Though critics' interest in Walker will continue to concentrate on her prose, the readers across the country who cherished Walker's earlier poems will find in this new work exactly what they've awaited.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

For Alice Walker, there are no dividing lines between the personal, the political, and the artistic, and, consequently, her novels, essays, and poetry swing from sweet modes of intimacy to blunt polemics to confessional therapy to revelation. In her introduction to her sixth volume of poetry, Walker confides that she had thought she might not write anymore, but that changed after September 11, and she found herself writing these mystic prayers and heartfelt yet lithe and airy recollections of dreams and tributes to plants, animals, and compassionate people. Although some verge on triteness, most achieve a radiant simplicity, and all are sincere in their celebrations of nature and love, and protests against war, conquest, and more private forms of cruelty. Graceful in their spirituality, openness to experience, and rueful humor, Walker's poems revolve around love and gratitude for the earth. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

I Can Worship You

I Can Worship You

I can worship You

But I cannot give You everything.

If you cannot

Adore

This body.

If you cannot

Put your lips

To my

Clear water.

If you cannot

Rub bellies

With

My sun.

The Love of Bodies

Dearest One

Of flesh & bone

There is in

My memory

Such a delight

In the recent feel of your warm body;

Your flesh, and remembrance of the miracle

Of bone,

The structure of Your sturdy knee.

The softness of your belly

Curves

My hand;

Your back

Warms me.

Your tush, seen bottomless,

Is like a small,

Undefended Country

In which is grown Yellow Melons.

It is such a blessing

To be born

Into these;

And what a use

To put

Them to.

To hold,

To cherish,

To delight.

The tree next door

Is losing

Its body

Today.

They are cutting

It down, piece

By heavy piece

Returning,

With a thud,

To The earth.

May she know peace

Eternal Returning to

Her source

And

That her beauty

Lofty

Intimate

With air & fog

Was seen

And bowed to

Until this Transition.

I send love

And gratitude

That Life

Sent you

(And her)

To spend

This time

With me.

After the bombing of 9/11, September 25, 2001

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0375509046
• ISBN 13: 9780375509049
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256