A Primer on Parallel Lives

Gerber, Dan

ISBN 10: 1556592531 / ISBN 13: 9781556592539

Published by Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA, 2007

About this Item

A fine copy of the stated first softcover printing, warmly inscribed and signed by Dan Gerber in the year of publication on the half-title page. The text is of course wholly unmarked, pristine, and the binding absolutely bright and fresh in appearance. A brilliant copy.

Seller Inventory # 009561

Bibliographic Details

• Title: A Primer on Parallel Lives
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1556592531
• ISBN 13: 9781556592539
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

“Dan Gerber tenderly reels his readers through the ‘beautiful movie' he calls the passing of time on earth in a language completely unadorned and Zen-like in its quietude. The thing itself carries the weight of these poems, which recall the deep imagery of Vallejo, Neruda and Wright."—Rain Taxi

“Gerber's got a Spanish soul. A bloody, dusty, old Spanish soul. He's got Machado, Lorca, and Jiménez all rolled up in him. And when he does the lyric, or the meditative, it speaks to the universe and to us."—Line Break

Dan Gerber is a master of layered, bittersweet imagery. In his seventh book of poems, he writes of childhood misgivings and fears, the oak savannah landscape of California's central coast, and a near-mystical relationship with nature. As novelist John Nichols once wrote of Gerber's poetry, “Dan Gerber has an exquisitely muted, yet profound understanding of tragedy, love, family, and the haunting vagaries of nature."

“Some Distance"

I wanted to be a stone in the field,
simply that,
and then I wanted to be the grass around it,
and then the cattle grazing
under the too blue sky,
and then the blue,
which has of itself
no substance,
and yet goes on and on and on.

Dan Gerber is the author of a dozen books of poetry, fiction, essays, and memoir. He has earned the Mark Twain Award, Book of the Year honors from ForeWord Magazine, and inclusion in The Best American Poetry. He lives in Santa Ynez, California.

About the Author

Dan Gerber is the author of a dozen books of poetry, fiction, essays, and memoir. He has received the Mark Twain Award, "Book of the Year" honors from Foreword magazine, and inclusion in Best American Poetry and The American Life in Poetry.