New and Collected Poems - Softcover

Paley, Grace

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0884480992 ISBN 13: 9780884480990

Publisher: Tilbury House, 1992

Synopsis

Poetry. " Grace Paley is a poet of great whimsy and wisdom. She is a teller of proverbs, she is funny and poignant, a writer of great power and great delicacy. She is one of our finest - and most original - poets. I love reading her" -Gerald Stern.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

More ruminations than poems, this volume encompasses many of the issues that Paley ( Enormous Changes at the Last Minute ) has been writing about for years in both her fiction and poetry: familial and cultural heritage, aging and the passing of time, various liberal causes to which she is attached, and the responsiblities of the poet to society. Because Paley seems more interested in ideas and ideals than in language and feeling, rarely does the imagery prompt an emotional response. Only when Paley resorts to nature as a metaphor for the cycle of existence is her poetry truly affecting. In "Fear" she writes: "I am afraid of nature / because of nature I am mortal / . . . I lived in the city for forty years / in this way I escaped fear." Paley has a keen sense for discerning human qualities in nature's creatures. An untitled poem comments on the blind enthusiasm of youth: "A bee! / drowning in / a wild rose / flat on its / round back / kicking / too young to / use love for / health and / enrichment." Ultimately, these poems convey a wise sensibility that, although not always moving, is often probing and provocative.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Like her celebrated short fiction, Paley's poems are street-smart yet vulnerable, full of earthy observations and a refreshing bemusement. And, like her stories, these poems display a wonderful ear for the rhythm of the speech of her native New York, where "talk is cheap but comes in variety." Paley is the artist who "tells the story of the stories" told by children and grandmothers, which resonate "in the mind's ear" as "talk talk talk/the tickling tongue/ of strangers." These poems are rich with the fullness of everyday life: the doings of Paley's Greenwich Village neighborhood, summers in Vermont, full-time political activism, memories of family and friends. Paley's wonderful economy with words recalls William Carlos Williams and the objectivist poets: "it must be summertime/ buttercup gone/ hawkweed gone/ black eyed susan/ before you/ know it queen anne's lace/ goldenrod and that/ will be that." Highly recommended for poetry and American literature collections.
- Christine Stenstrom, New York Law Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tilbury House
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0884480992
• ISBN 13: 9780884480990
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1