Synopses & Reviews
These poems exhibit the range of Sam Hamill's celebrated practice and vision, from philosophical and discursive elements to the intensely lyrical, from his continuing poems of praise (and elegies) for fellow poets to the clear influence of the Zen classics he has so notably translated.
Review
"What I like about Sam Hamill's poetry is its not being in the least laid-back and cool. In it, tears, laughter, anger and sorrow contend, all set forth with passionate candor. Hamill's deep intimacy with classical literature of the West and the Orient gives many of his poems a graceful concision as in the second part of his book, 'Lessons from Thieves.' 'My poetry will very likely die with me,' the poet declares; but that isn't going to happen if Ezra Pound was right and 'In poetry, only emotion endures.'" X. J. Kennedy
Review
"Throughout Sam Hamill's large body of work, there are poems that reach the sublime. They are powerful, combining an exquisite sensibility with directness of speech. Some of his lines are at the heart of poetry, and to read them is pure joy: 'Sustained by a few metaphors' / the tale, the telling,/ the minds music, the heart's vision.'" Grace Schulman
Review
"These poems delight, surprise, and teach important lessons of love, compassion, generosity of spirit and ultimate patience, which the great teacher called 'the supreme austerity.' Because of this, and because Sam Hamill is one of the essential poetic and political voices of our time, these are necessary, no, essential poems that you will go back to again and again." Bruce Weigl
About the Author
Sam Hamill is the author of fourteen volumes of original poetry, has published three collections of essays and two-dozen volumes translated from ancient Greek, Latin, Estonian, Japanese, and Chinese. He is the founding editor of Copper Canyon Press and the Director of Poets Against War. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.
Table of Contents
Part One: Eyes Wide OpenArs Poetica
Eyes Wide Open
America, Mon Amour
With Ilaria and Francesca in Piacenza
Arguing with Milosz in Vilnius
On the Death of James Oscco Annamaria
Canto Amor
Vigilance
Part Two: Lessons from Thieves
Taos, 1958
Testament of the Thief
Lessons from Thieves
Nine Gates
At the Japanese Exhibition
A Word in Farsi
Sweeping the Garden
A Question Answered
Solstice
Part Three: Measured by Stone
Gazing Down the Fiarway, I Think of Po Chu-i
To Gray on Our Anniversary
To Marvin Bell
A Mountain
In Memoriam, Nancy Foster
To Quincy Troupe
To Doris Thurston on Her Eightieth Birthday
Bidding Farewell to a Friend
Awakening in Buenos Aires
Strolling Calle Florida
On the Third Anniversary of the Ongoing War in Iraq
Poem on His Sixty-third Birthday
Homeland Security
Cairo Qasidah
To WIlliam Slater