Other Lives

Robert Hass's 'The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems' was brought out earlier this year by U.S. publisher Ecco. Continuing its excellent work of publishing outstanding American poets, Bloodaxe will be releasing it in the U.K. in January of next year. I couldn't think of a better way to start the new year and can't wait to receive a copy. If you've not read his wonderfully meditative work before, here's a taster. Dragonflies Mating 1. The people who lived here before us also loved these high mountain meadows on summer mornings. They made their way up here in easy stages when heat began to dry the valleys out, following the berry harvest probably and the pine buds: climbing and making camp and gathering, then breaking camp and climbing and making camp and gathering. A few miles a day. They sent out the children to dig up bulbs of the mariposa lilies that they liked to roast at night by the fire where they sat talking about how this year was dif...

I've just ordered Donald Hall's White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006, and I'm waiting to receive Edward Hirsch's Wild Gratitude. Somewhere in the post is also The Best American Poetry 2001, edited by one of my favourite poets Robert Hass. On the go at home are The Best American Poetry 1991 and 2005, edited by Mark Strand and Paul Muldoon respectively. After those I think I'll probably want a break from big American anthologies and will hope to finish off Zbigniew Herbert's Collected Poems. There is a also a mounting stack of non-poetry books by my bed. At the very bottom is a slim book called Introduction to Zen which I have been intending to re-read for a while. The eschewal of language explored within is beginning to feel more attractive.