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Simic puts chirping birds, sex, and happiness into a world of broken windows, shivering trees, soldiers, lone dogs, the homeless of the city, and a God still making up his mind. “Provocative...a tantalizing, beautiful fusion of visions” (Bloomsbury Review).
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Customer Reviews (3)

His Best
Of all Simic's books, this is the strongest.All his themes are here: the search for meaning, religious iconography, and his use of ironic contrasting images.This is the book that should have won the Pulitzer (nothing against his "The World Doesn't End").Imagine a cross between Blake, Neruda, and Issa, and you'll have a good idea of the places this book will take you.

Beautiful.
Charles Simic, A Wedding in Hell (Harcourt Brance Jovanovich, 1994)

Simic is as good as it gets, and in A Wedding in Hell he's in top form. Simultaneously irreverent and spiritual, the bulk of the poems in this book center around themes of higher powers and how odd they are when looked at from our perspective. Simic's usual surreal wit is in play throughout, and almost every poem has an unexpected pleasure waiting for the reader at the end. (I'd jotted down quotes to put here, but it was raining yesterday and the paper got smudged. Since I can't read my own writing, just imagine "Prayer" is inserted here.)

Lovely, on a par with Simic's beat work. Highly recommended. ****

Considering Charles Simic
After reading many of Charles Simic's works, I have to say that this book of poems was an easy and inspiring read.I find that reading his work lightens me up even if the content is at times dark.Simic seems to be writing through his darkness in this work and searching for the light at the end of the tunnel.He often uses humor in his darkness as well as obsurdity to reflect on the reality.It's a quick read and they are the kind of poems that you can read over and over again and always learn a deeper insight from them.He is an easy poet to relate to and definitely worth reading. ... Read more

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Hamlet’s ghost wandering the halls of a Vegas motel, a street corner ventriloquist using passersby as dummies, and Jesus panhandling in a weed-infested Eden are just a few of the startling conceits Simic unleashes in this collection. “Few contemporary poets have been as influential-or inimitable-as Charles Simic” (New York Times Book Review).
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Customer Reviews (3)

One of the best poets alive
Charles Simic's "Walking The Black Cat" is hard evidence that the sarcastic, irreverent and consciousness bending spirit of surrealism is alive and well.Simic's tone is flippant and unmistakably poetic; he can take the most ordinary situation and make a slick, subtle metaphysical comment about it ("On the Sagging Porch" is one of the best examples of this, as he takes a local president of the SPCA in a few beautiful stanzas makes Judas out of him).In fact he seems to have a better grasp of what the oft used and abused word "surreal" means then a lot of the original surrealists themselves; these poems are not word games or pretty images, but both employed into substantive, moving poetry that sticks to the mind.I think this collection as much as "The World Doesn't End" deserved the Pulitzer Prize.Anyone who loves challenging, consciousness altering poetry will become a devotee of Simic.

Gorgeous.
Charles Simic, Walking the Black Cat (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1996)

Pulitzer Prizewinning author Charles Simic is to dada what Clayton Eshleman is to surrealism; he's pretty much the sole light keeping it alive in the world of poetry in the present day. Simic, a hardcore imagist, is wonderfully precise in his use of concrete detail, which he then pulls completely out of the realm of reality by juxtaposing things which have no business being next to one another. Walking the Black Cat, a finalist for the National Book Award, is often considered one of Simic's finest works, and justly. There is much here to be enjoyed, mulled over, surprised at, and delighted with, and very little that dips below the level of brilliant. If you've never discovered the Joy of Simic, this is a fantastic place to start. ****

Contemporary, Thoughtful, Disturbing, and Refreshing
Blue collar poetry.Subtle and haunting, Charles Simic sets out, one rainy, Sunday afternoon, to take the innards out of life, and play with them as a child would play with an Erector Set.Very satisfying and original ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

No it wasn't, except for a couple.
There were few poems in here that I actually found romantic.With all the good reviews, I even went back and read it again in case I was just in a bad mood when I read it the first time. But, no, my first impressions was the same.
Lee Ann Brown's "After Sappho" was the best.That was because it echoed my own experience with my wife of now 35 years ago.I also liked Catherine Wagner's "Lover" about going back in time and loving various people in literary history.Most of the others just passed me by.
I'm listening to the CD with the love songs as I write this.It's better than the book.

A Big Bag of Caramels
Saddened by the losses? Try this swell anthology. It will make the room glow back at you with convivial company and music. I think a lot, it gets me through, and this is perfect for the bathroom, the bedroom, the windowseat overlooking the construction site. You come across as a horse in touch with intoxicants. Listen: A lot of energy, nerve, tenderness and fashion comes crammed between these pages, and even though it doesn't announce itself as such, what we have here, Doctor, is a case of practically every younger poet you really ought to know about. Brace yourself for a big bag of caramels.

Connections
Terrific anthology boasting most of the most pleasant younger poets publishing nowadays. With an ultracool music CD in the bargain, it's chance-free really. You deserve this, dearheart. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Sad Tales of Painful Relationships
Okay, I have to admit, this book is by my old poetry teacher, and she is cool!The poems in this collection are confessional in style.Whether they're autobiographical or not, they sure seem to be, and these are mostly some rather sad tales of difficult relationships.

My favorite poem has her going to work after having some dental work done.Her co-workers assume her boyfriend beat her up, and she's too embarrassed to tell them otherwise.The poem is poignant, funny in a sentimental kind of way, and certainly rings true. ... Read more

Product Description
Charles Simic's quicksilver imagination, his masterly way with words, and his unalloyed love of life and language alike inform every page of this wonderfully wide-ranging collection. Again and again, Simic takes up a subject and turns it this way and that, showing us what we haven't noticed before, inviting us to share an infectious delight that turns everything, in the end, into poetry. It's a gift that has won him a coveted MacArthur Fellowship, among many honors, but he wears his magic lightly.
Often, he addresses poetry itself. Among the pieces here are appreciations of Mark Strand, James Merrill, John Ashbery, and James Tate, each evaluated with a keen eye tempered by a generous spirit. Other essays discuss Joseph Brodsky, Czeslaw Milosz, and Vasko Popa; to these writers he brings the understanding available only to those who can read them in the original. In considering Brodsky's translations, for instance, he offers insights regarding not only the poet himself but the very nature of language. Elsewhere, he peers into poetry's past and its future: as a vessel of memory, a witness to history, and a mirror of human experience.
But perhaps the greatest pleasures afforded by The Metaphysician in the Dark, as he styles himself with a beguiling mix of modesty and irony, appear when Simic goes further afield. His look at the deadpan comedy of Buster Keaton is as revealing of the author as of the actor and his craft; his perusal of a Heironymous Bosch altarpiece captures both the painter's sense of apocalypse and a riotous joy in the piling of detail upon detail; his review of a book on Joseph Cornell examines how obsession becomes art. He is fluently familiar with subjects as diverse as Saul Bellow's novels and Aberlardo Morell's extraordinary camera obscura photographs. Yet when he takes the gloves off, as in two essays on the Serbia of Slobodan Milosevic, his outrage is as forceful as his pride is strong in his own Serbian heritage.
Each of the two dozen essays here reflects a sophistication irresistible in its simplicity; taken together, they display a questing intelligence and a panorama of life and art.
Charles Simic is an acclaimed poet, novelist, essayist and teacher. Winner of a MacArthur Fellowship and a Pulitzer Prize, he is the author of more than twenty volumes of poetry and six books of prose, as well as numerous translations. He is Distinguished University Professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, where he has taught since 1973.
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My whole ten-best list this year might be Charles Simic...
Charles Simic, Classic Ballroom Dances (Braziller, 1980)

With Classic Ballroom Dances, Simic's eighth book of poetry, he hit his best stride. Better than Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk, better than Charon's Cosmology, better even than his Pulitzer Prize-winning The World Doesn't End, Classic Ballroom Dances may, in fact, be the finest single book of poetry released in the twentieth century in the English language. It certainly stands on a short shelf with The World Doesn't End, Carruth's Collected Shorter Poems, Lowell's Lord Weary's Castle, the Collected Poems of Aime Cesaire, etc.

Surrealism is not an easy thing to come by in English. One may think it so, judging by all the surrealist wannabes that have been scampering around for the past half-century or so, but true surrealism requires both a deep understanding of the French poetry upon which it is based (this is where most surrealist wannabes fall short) and an aptitude for combining the form and function of surrealist poetry with English, integrating the linguistic wordplay of English with the French diction. (This is where a lesser number of surrealist wannabes fall short, but note the two often overlap in truly untalented individuals.) The handful of American surrealists who do it right-Eshleman, Stroffolino, Simic, a few others-have an understanding of this so ingrained it's almost second nature. That's why Eshleman can write The Gull Wall, or Simic can write Classic Ballroom Dances, and have them come out sounding just as fresh and witty as the best translations from the French (Benedikt's, Hamburger's, et al). Simic's "Ditty" may be the perfect English surrealist poem:

"...live as a bride of no one
the sister of algebra
could you love and remember
and remember only to forget
could you live as a dog without a master..."
("Ditty")

Simic's charms are, of course, not limited to being the illegitimate child of some secretive tryst between Guillaume Apollinaire and Paul Eluard, however. He is equally a child of the more traditional imagist school, and is capable of painting sparse pictures of undeniable beauty:

"...In a clearing,
They sized me up and then took their distance.
Quiet folk, bent, emaciated,

For such is the season. Without clues,
With hands raised, I stood like a mare
In a blacksmith's shop, Smoke
Of a late December sunlight..."
("December Trees")

It is quite impossible for me to actually say how good Classic Ballroom Dances is; it has redefined the measuring stick. With it, Simic stamped himself not only one of the finest poets working in the latter half of the twentieth century, but put himself to the head of the class. This will almost certainly top my Ten Best Reads of the Year list. ***** ... Read more

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A poet in full command of his art
Simon Armitage's poetic presence in Britain may be an answer to the absence of Philip Larkin; every line in these very poemly poems (Armitage is clearly a master of craft) smell of that same chilling, melancholic smoke Larkin could produce with just a few short lines.

While the title poem is devastating and to be read and re-read for poets who are just getting on to the business of "short impact" poetry: ("The Shout" is a three line stanza, 20 word gunshot blast to the reader's psyche) we find more of who Armitage is by perusing the entire collection.He goes from blazing hot to blazing hot, only occasionally to lukewarm when he writes "love affair" poems that are at times indistinguishable from any younger poet's attempt to convey these kinds of things.

The poems take off when Armitage decides to adopt Weldon Kees' doomed Everyman Robinson.Adding a sort of irascibility and rebelliousness to Kees' mostly helpless and docile figure, "Mr Robinson's Holiday" shows some lifeblood in the otherwise flaccid persona: "Robinson damned if he'll pay an extra pound/for a plug in the bath, soaking for an hour at least/with his heel in the hole/Then without a towel/drying off on a curtain/Typical, Robinson/Typical."

The sole flaw I find in this collection is that Armitage tries on so many new faces, uses so many different poetic devices, that it becomes a bit confusing.Who *is* the poet underneath all of these disguises?On the other hand this is also to be praised: in the contemporary world of poetry there are so many one note numbers and lazy mediocrities propelling postmodern drivel that to encounter a flesh and blood poet as the one we have here is an absolute reward.

A great collection.

Second try at posting this one...
Simon Armitage, The Shout (Harcourt, 2005)

According to Charles Simic's introduction to this volume, Simon Armitage is one of Britain's most popular modern poets. This collection, while a bit hefty for a single-author outing, makes it easy to see why; like Billy Collins, Armitage is a master at balancing the quotidian with the poetic, coming up with poems that are without a doubt poetry, yet still easily readable and, oftentimes, a good deal of fun (though with a dark tang):

"No gearing up or getting to speed, just an instant rage,
the rush of metal lashing out at air, connected to the main.
The chainsaw with its perfect disregard, its mood
to tangle with cloth, or jewellry, or hair.
The chainsaw with its bloody desire, its sweet tooth
for the flesh of the face and the bones underneath,
its grand plan to kick back against nail or knot
and rear up into the brain.
I let it flare, lifted it into the sun
and felt the hundred beats per second drumming in its heart,
and felt the drive-wheel gargle in its throat."
("Chainsaw versus the Pampas Grass")

Good stuff both for the seasoned poetry reader and the novice who got soured on it in school. I do wish they'd chosen a slightly slimmer volume, though; Armitage's stuff can definitely give meaning to the phrase "too much of a good thing." Peruse at leisure. ***

Rock'n'Roll mixed with haunting lyricism
The Shout is a compilation of poems from past works by Armitage. The very readable poems in the book, both traditional and experimental, encompass a world of subject matter. I don't usually read much poetry, preferring fiction, but after stumbling on this collection I might start.

The poems freshly explore both the banal and the transcendent with wry humor, authenticity, lyricism and originality.

Darkly humorous "Gooseberry Season" tells the story of an annoyed family calmly murdering an unwelcome houseguest. The elegant, melancholic "To His Lost Lover" is a man's reflection on the experiences he never had in a relationship, regretting "how they never slept like buried cutlery," and he "never drank intoxicating liquors from her navel/ Or christened the Pole Star in her name." "You're Beautiful" is one of my favorites, which you can find online with some searching. Order this book!

Language lovers, delight
All too often these days poetry is something like "I am/but I am not/and there is a puzzle/piece/on the wall" and you feel like it should mean something but you're not sure what.

Simon Armitage is different.The imagery is clear and the language he uses is crystalline in its sharpness and exactitude.The verses are structured with a seamless fluidity so that they flow effortlessly, and yet you are aware of how tightly regimented the words are.This is the work of a master poet, and it shows.All of his poems, no matter how short or long, require several readings: the first time, you are only aware of the precision in the cadence and the evocative images he uses; the second, you start to understand the story he's telling (all of his poems are, essentially, stories); third, you are trying to come to terms with the whys and the hows; fourth, you start to grasp the symbolism and the meaning.

And the strange thing--it never gets old.You read the poems once, twice, ten, fifty times, and each time there is something to marvel at.It's like an old Beatels' LP--you know all the songs on there by heart, you know every note, and yet when you listen to it yet again, there's always something more. ... Read more

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One of the better books of poetry I've read this year.
Charles Simic, White (New Rivers Press, 1972)

I have quite quickly become convinced that Charles Simic's books belong on the same short shelf that holds Carruth, Sadoff, Robert Lowell, and a few other American poets. Seems like everything I pick up by the guy is wonderful. This early piece (a collection? A long poem? Can't tell) continues the trend.

It's either a collection of short, untitled pieces (which the acknowledgments section would seem to indicate) or a longer work called "White" with a postscript. Either way, it's classic Simic and well worth the trouble it will take to hunt down. It's more classically surreal than his later works, but with the same tone of understated wit, the same veneration of the odd ins-and-outs of quirky beauty, the same engaging, and distinct, diction.

If you're not yet familiar with the work of Charles Simic, the only reason not to start with this one is that it will take you way too long to find, probably. If you're already an established fan, or stumble across a copy in your local library, by all means give it a read. **** ... Read more

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Since 1976, Christopher Reid has been startling and delighting readers of poetry. His philosphic concerns are often expressed in small, domestic details, but, as with the Metaphysical poets he admires, the effect heightens his poetry's seriousness and impact. Reid finds significance in the marginal, the endangered, the apocryphal, and the absurd. His verse, which has earned him both the distinguished Hawthornden and Somerset Maugham Prizes, is subversive and highly intelligent.

The Pultizer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic provides a welcome introduction to one of England's most distinguished and original voices.
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Customer Reviews (1)

This book reeks
The poems are about swiss cheese and farting.NOT ABOUT MERMAIDS!!!!!This book needs a new title.I bought this book to read poems about mermaids like the title suggests. Horribly disappointed. ... Read more

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More fun from Simic.
Charles Simic, That Little Something (Harcourt, 2008)

Charles Simic is stepping down from the post of Poet Laureate a year early because, he says, being Poet Laureate keeps him away from doing what he loves best-- writing poetry. And honestly, as much as I like seeing Simic, unarguably one of America's best living poets, in such a position, anything that gets him to be more prolific is perfectly fine with me.

I have to say that Simic's distraction is noticeable in some of these poems, but really, when Simic brings his A game to the table, he's still matchless:

"The two of us just barely visible,
Ghostlike looking from high up
At the wet cobblestones,
The one pigeon who appeared hurt,
Who wanted to be somewhere else
And did his best to get there,
Limping badly and stopping to rest."
("One Wing of the Museum")

It's getting kind of boring saying "another winner from Charles Simic," but I'll put up with the boredom as long as Simic keeps turning out my favorite books of any given year. Wonderful, as usual. ****

little sad something
The first reviewer nails it on the head everything he says is right on.

I love Simic's work. He is the reason I started writing myself. I owe everything to his book "Walking the Black Cat" which is a five star book. But I'm sad to say that his last 4 or 5 books have little to offer.

retread
This is a very slight, minor work by Charles Simic and one wonders why he even bothered to publish it. Perhaps he's cashing in on his new poet laureate status- cynical but who can blame him? All the old familiar Simic symbols and metaphors are paraded out but without the depth of some of his earlier books. Also lacking is energy and inventiveness. His style is instantly recognizible and I'm afraid he has become something of a parody of himself. The title is really accurate- This book is Something and it is Little. ... Read more

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One of the founding members of the California Assemblage movement in the 1950s, George Herms and his colleagues made a name for themselves through their use of the discarded, greatly influencing the Pop artists to come. A 20th-century philosopher who uses objects instead of words to deliver quixotic thoughts, Herms, through his work, starts easy conversations with the viewer, making gentle, sometimes funny statements. All copies of Then and Now are signed.

Preface by Anthony Seraphin.
Introduction by Charles Simic and thoughts by George Herms on his 67th Birthday.

Paperback, 9.75 x 1175 in. 88 pages, 61 color illustrations. Each book is signed by the artist. ... Read more

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The most revealing look at breasts.

Photographs of breasts are everywhere: in museums, on book covers, in fashion ads, and on posters. Alluring symbols of womanhood, breasts have fascinated generations of image makers. Here, for the first time between two covers, is the breast in photography: the titillating breast, the maternal breast, the aging breast, and the symbolic breast.

In Master Breasts, darkly witty political images of the 1970s jostle for space with Edward Weston's classic nudes; Nan Goldin's friends share pages with Robert Mapplethorpe's gorgeously sculptured models. From Alfred Stieglitz's classic studies of Georgia O'Keeffe to Mary Ellen Mark's vivid documentary portraits, they are all here. Other artists include Cindy Sherman, Imogen Cunningham, and Sally Mann.

A witty and reflective Introduction from the acclaimed novelist and essayist Francine Prose further links the images, while a monologue from Karen Finley's recent performance piece American Chestnut, "The Detective," reveals a young girl's anguish about breast-inspired catcalls and jokes and then sardonically calls for similar cultural treatment of the male anatomy. Finally, in Nobel Prize-winner Dario Fo's radically funny play The Story of the Tiger, the benefits of breast-feeding are celebrated as never before.
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Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent
THis is THE book for Big Breast lovers, which, in this modern age, is a relatively rare phenomenon.

Interesting insight, and fresh "views" of the breast.
Perhaps not quite what we expected. We (my girlfriend and I) are both interested in what roles the breast plays in sociology and in culture, and hoped this book would grant us some fresh perspectives.

There are very interesting and provocative (but I certainly wouldnt call them erotic by any means) images in this book, as well as some fascinating art. Some of it we really would love to have framed.

The images are suitable for anyone to look at, with only a few being tantalizing or vaguely... scintillating. It's the kind of book that is good to read sitting down with company and see how you and others react. Perfectly suitable for a bookshelf or coffeetable.

Breast views.
To use the words of Meema Spadola, breasts are symbols of sexuality, motherhood, and power. This book by Prose and Simic explores the spectrum of possibilities in this wide range of meanings. This is, though,photographic ART. Those who think that art should be readily pleasurable,appreciated, or liked may find themselves challenged by this format. If youfeel that art should be challenging, you may find this book appealing. Onviewing it one may be stimulated by novel and sometimes not necessarilypleasurable thoughts. This seems to contradict the implication in the titlethat there is something necessarily `titillating" here. (Certainly theconcept seems to stretch more common notion what is exciting, nasty andfun). For that I would deduct two stars. ... Read more

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This is the first comprehensive English-language collection of verse by the most celebrated Slovenian poet of modern times and one of Europe's most notable postwar poets, Edvard Kocbek (1904-1981).

The selections introduce the reader to the full spectrum of Kocbek's long and distinguished career, starting with the pantheist and expressionist nature poems of his early period and continuing through the politically engaged poetry written during and after World War II, to the philosophical and metaphysical meditations of his fecund late period.

Readers will be struck by the originality and freshness of Kocbek's sinewy and intense vision, rendered into fluid and idiomatic English by two experienced translators. The Slovenian texts appear on the facing pages.

The opening stanza of "Moon with a Halo"

The man beside me was killed.He had a mother who bore himand a father who made him toys,he had a brother and a playful uncleand a little girl with blond braids,he had a wooden cart and a wooden horse,a trunkful of colored dreamsand a brook where he used to fish. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Set in the author's native Serbia, this collection of short storiesreveals a vision transcending the narrow world of Serbian nationalism. DavidAlbahari is concerned with the separation of people, but in a more universalsense than the tribal. He has the modern writer's obsession with ourinability to express in words what is really meant; he even plays withself-reference, pointing to the inability of a reader to grasp the hiddencontext of literature. In the early stories, a claustrophobically close Jewishfamily struggles comically to communicate. In the later ones, it is a husbandand wife who strive for an elusive connection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Very brainy!Would read again! A+++++++++
I really really like David Albahari's short fiction.Sometimes his long-form stuff can be a little difficult, but the short stories are tight and loose and poignant and meandering all at once.

The dark side of the Moon
Albahari's work is and will be a complex simplicity, a work wich will always make you think about the words: the power of words. Most of his work has not been translated yet. I hope that somebody will start doing it. Ifnot, I will not be surprised, if Albahari will start to write in English -in that way the Ballkan will have the first Joseph Conrad! His stories areawesome, you will have a feeling that you are reading through a microscope,you will reveal thinks that you see but that you never percieved thembefore, you will start to be possesed by inner ideas how life is such acomplex world (especially in Ballkan (sic!)), and with all it's tragicingredients how terrible can it be when nationalism, hate and historicalrevenege starts to rise and to controll you ... If the Second WW was overthe memories still remain.Albahari writes about it. He writes through hisfather or mother. But, what shall Albahari do now when the civil war inYugoslavia destroyed the whole new generations!He still writes about hisfather and mother: the history will be rewinded again! There will benothing new! The time in Ballkan doesen't exist, and if it does , then itexist differently. Serbs & Croats, Serbs & Muslims, Muslims&Croats, Serbs & Albanians ...they will slaughter each other and therewill be nothing new under the Sun ... except the family saga of one Jewishfamily.

david albahari is Europe's master of the short short story.
the mystery of the word, the tricks of the mind, the lunacy of the everyday is the stuff of Europe's master short short story writer. this is the first translation of david albahari's work into English. he has published 10 collections of short stories and novellas to date and is considered one of the prime writers from the former Yugoslavia. He currently lives in Calgary, Canada, where he came from Belgrade to be Markin-Flanagan distinguished writer in residence in 1995. Of Jewish background, albahari is concerned with the depth and shallowness of human identity and the role that chance plays in survival. with a dark sense of humour and a light sense of tragedy he captures the pain of 20th century existence ... Read more