So It Goes: Poems

ISBN: 1555972322

Author: Grennan, Eamon

Condition: Used

From BooklistGrennan, an Irish native long resident at Vassar College, is at the top of his form. His subjects are common to poets his age: loss of parents, worries about the loss of powers, the small joys of a happy life. What distinguishes his takes on them is his fierce sensuality and his narrative ease. In a poem about his mother's death, he moves us through the day of "her waking and last exposure," which includes the very moment when he discovers that "the livid veins and that bright traveller, the blood, / have settled for snow at last." This is mature poetry, both in subject and in language. Patricia MonaghanProduct DescriptionEamon Grennan is a writer who is able to find sensuality in the small gestures of the world--in the look of a firefly, the sound of a step, the tastes of a meal, the rhythm in things. A poet of immediacy and surprise, Grennan can turn our eye to objects caught in the light and suddenly transformed.In So It Goes, Grennan maps a spiritual geography for the middle of life's journey: ahead he sees the dark thickets of mortality; behind, the vulnerability of childhood. This is a brilliant collection--at once celebratory and elegiac--by a poet whose work has been described as the "verbal equivalent of 17th century Dutch paintings."From Library Journal"There comes in middle life a moment/when everything is very solid/and seems to stand foursquare/in its own hard, uncompromising light." Having come to his middle years, Grennan is pensive and expansive. His hard-won maturity and insight enable him to cast light on the shadows and reveal the everyday wonders hidden there. With logic, plain, honest language, precision, and clarity, the author presents a world that has always been but we have rarely noticed. His appreciation of the small things makes these poems memorable: "The boy is on the verge of walking/past me, about to go where I can't imagine..." In this case, it is a statue ("a summary of boys, no one in particular..."), but it might as easily have been a young son setting out?his first steps and a life in front of him. Midlife is often viewed as a time of crisis: "What you see is that there's no second time." To Grennan it is an opportunity to pause and take account. Both his example and his poems are recommended for poetry collections.?Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., PhiladelphiaCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.ReviewEamon Grennan's writing brings us over and over again to the discovery of what is naturally so and had passed unrercognized. -W.S. MerwinFrom the Back Cover"Eamon Grennan's writing brings us over and over again to the discovery of what is naturally so and had passed unrercognized."--W.S. MerwinEamon Grennan is a writer who is able to find sensuality in the small gestures of the world--in the look of a firefly, the suond of a step, the tastes of a meal, the rhythm in things. A poet of immediacy and surprise, Grennan can turn our eye to objects caught in the light and suddenly transformed.In So It Goes, Grennan maps a spiritual geography for the middle of life's journey: ahead he sees the dark thickets of mortality; behind, the vulnerability of childhood. This is a brilliant collection--at once celebratory and elegiac--by a poet whose work has been described as the "verbal equivalent of 17th century Dutch paintings."Eamon Grennan is an Irish citizen and has lived in the United States for many years. A professor of English at Vassar College, Grennan is the recipient of a Guggenheim and an NEA fellowship. His previous books include What Light There Is & Other Poems and As If It Matters, and his work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Nation and the Threepenny Review.About the AuthorEamon Grennan is an Irish citizen and has lived in the United States for many years. A professor of English at Vassar College, Grennan is the recipient of a Guggenheim and an NEA fellowship. His previous books include What Light There Is & Other Poems and As If I