First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems that Capitivated and Inspired ThemWhen Carmela Ciuraru asked her favorite poets to write about the poems that first inspired them, she was astonished by the illuminating responses she received. In turn, readers will be delighted by the intimate reflections on life and poetry found in First Loves.Affording close-up views of today's best poets, the book also (re)introduces readers to the timeless poems they selected. Sherman Alexie writes about recognizing the constant threat of violence on his reservation when he read Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz". It was a poem by her father that taught Virginia Hamilton Adair about the joys of poetry and the hidden life of her parent. J. D. McClatchy tells of first reading Homer by candlelight while eating a bowl of applesauce. Featuring many Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners, the book includes essays by Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky, Jorie Graham, Yusef Komunyakaa, and many others.Just in time for National Poetry Month, First Loves is a testament to poetry's matchless abilityto restore faith, offer salvation and solidarity, and above all, alter the course of human life. |
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Page 95
Death takes the form of Nature , who is your death and knows death , and also will tell you about it if you make love to her . What else , what other pinup , was there in 1943 for a boy to lie down with ? The tone of “ Thanatopsis ...
Death takes the form of Nature , who is your death and knows death , and also will tell you about it if you make love to her . What else , what other pinup , was there in 1943 for a boy to lie down with ? The tone of “ Thanatopsis ...
Page 123
BELL HOOKS When the dying took place at home children saw death . It was not secret or hidden away . Death had its peculiar odors , created an aura of hushed tones and silences , imprinted on my mind tin basins filled with the fresh red ...
BELL HOOKS When the dying took place at home children saw death . It was not secret or hidden away . Death had its peculiar odors , created an aura of hushed tones and silences , imprinted on my mind tin basins filled with the fresh red ...
Page 244
Free from death . We only see death ; the free animal has its decease perpetually behind it and God in front , and when it moves , it moves into eternity , like running springs . We've never , no , not for a single day , pure space ...
Free from death . We only see death ; the free animal has its decease perpetually behind it and God in front , and when it moves , it moves into eternity , like running springs . We've never , no , not for a single day , pure space ...
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Contents
Acknowledgments | 11 |
Introduction by Carmela Ciuraru | 19 |
Virginia Hamilton Adair on Along the Road by Robert | 25 |
Copyright | |
19 other sections not shown
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First Loves: Poets Introduce the Essential Poems That Captivated and ... Carmela Ciuraru Limited preview - 2001 |
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American beauty become beginning blood Blow body books of poetry born called child City close Collected coming Copyright course dark dead death deep desire dream early English eyes face fall father feel felt Galway green hand head hear heard heart Hilda Doolittle human imagination kind knew language later learned leaves light lines listen lives look meaning memorized mind moon mother move nature never night once Oscar Hammerstein II Perhaps permission poem poet poetry published reader remember Reprinted rhymes Robert round seemed sense singing sleep song soul sound stand Stevens teaches tell things thou thought touch trees turn University verse voice wind write written young