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How Beautiful the Belovedby Gregory Orr
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:"Editor's Choice" Gregory Orr continues his acclaimed project on the "beloved" with a lyrical sequence about the joys and hungers of being fully engaged in life. Through concise, perfectly formed poems, he wakes us to the ecstatic possibilities of recognizing and risking love. Mary Oliver has called this project "gorgeous," and said that he "speaks of the events that have no larger or more important rival in our lives — of our love and our loving."
If to say it once And say it complete, Later for “but,” Now Review:"In his sequel to Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved (2005), Orr offers more short (many don't break 10 lines), earnest poems that take as their central metaphor 'the beloved,' Orr's word for a conflation of a loved human being, the idea of a kind of higher power beyond the self at which love and energy are directed, and the poetry itself, which bears all this praise in what Orr calls 'the Book.' The best of these poems are compact missives addressing in the most direct language possible many of humanity's most dire needs and fears: 'That single line: a rope/ The poem tossed out/ Into the dark./... / You're holding one end; The beloved, the other.// Rescue is imminent.// Too soon to say whose.' Elsewhere, the language is so direct that it's more like journaling than poetry. Most perplexing and interesting, however, are many poems in which the language would fall flat, except that Orr's line breaks add meaning and almost Rilkian power; imagine this going down the page: '...death is real, and all/ That is/ Flows toward its brink.// No wonder we need/ Hope and courage — // What the book brings.'" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"[A] confident, mystical, expansive project." Publishers Weekly Review:"[D]azzling and timeless. . . focus is so unwaveringly aimed toward the transcendent — not God, but the beloved — that we seem to slip into a less cluttered time." The Virginia Quarterly Review About the AuthorGregory Orr is the author of ten books of poetry, four collections of criticism, and a memoir that was selected by Publishers Weekly as a "Best Book of the Year." The former poetry editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review, Orr teaches at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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