Customer Reviews

All of Us: The Collected Poems

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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Carver is a true poet. He wrote about what he knew in a life both tragic and blessed. He was aware of the beauty in pain and the pain in beauty, and his poems evoke both for us with simple mastery. Here's a fragment from THE GIFT:

This morning there's snow everywhere. We remark on it.
You tell me you didn't sleep well. I say
I didn't either. You had a terrible night. "Me too."
We're extraordinarily calm and tender with each other
as if sensing the other's rickety state of mind.
As if we knew what the other was feeling. We don't,
of course. We never do. No matter.
It's the tenderness I care about. That's the gift
this morning that moves me and holds me.
Same as every morning.

Carver didn't use reality to create poems; he saw the poetry and captured it.....for us. That's his gift.

I've owned the hardcover edition of Carver's collected poems since it was released back in '99 or '00, and have kept it close to me ever since. This is the direct and honest language of his prose, condensed into a more personal, more poignant, and somehow more hopeful vision of life. Reading these poems forces you to be attentive -- to "make use" as he says -- and puts you back in touch with the things that remind you of a deeper reason to be here. And, it all happens quietly, without any effort, and without any pretense.

Those who have stated that Carver was a minimalist seem to feel minimalism is a negative. Minimalism is a form of expression, but it reflects merely the form, not the content. These are not minimal poems. The impact comes from straight language in simple grammatical structure. It is amazing how Carver is able to convey intense emotions with such a few number of words. He is a master. After I read FEAR, I was astounded (and somewhat disturbed) at how accurately he tells the depth of fear in such mundane events and short descriptions.

I am one of those who likes Carver's short stories as well as his poetry. He definitely has a masculine voice in all his work, but there is universality in the feelings. What I find more interesting than the "masculine" aspect of his writing (Hemingway was masculine too!) is his ability to write about city life and then go back to his roots in Oregon. Most writers have one of those locations in their souls. He has both and seems at home in both.

Well, I like Raymond Carver. Could you tell? This is writing that never sought out a thesaurus and still gives more shades of interpretation than Roget ever considered.

There are a number of good qualities about the poems of Carver. They are written in a simple clear language. The reader can understand them. They are about events and relations between people, and tell little stories. This makes them more interesting than if they were simply about his own isolated feelings. They have strong feelings in them. And they have an appreciation for many of the good things in life, loving others, beauty of literature. They too show at times a world of destitution, suffering , loneliness, broken- downness .A reader often wants on the page greater misery than his own , as a form of consolation. There are elements too in the work alien to me.
But on the whole reading these poems gave the feeling of true life as true literature.

Someone told me once that this was a book of poems for men. I am not sure this is the case, but I found them absolutely beautiful, real, sad, so direct that I feel like living them.
I prefer Carver' poems than his prose...but you should choose... one of the best and more contemporary books of poems I have ever read...

Although he will always be remembered for his unsurpassed short stories, Raymond Carver is an equally great poet. Many themes appear and reappear in the course of his autobiographic poetry: fishing, his wife and his love for everything in the world, his conquering of his aloholism. Carver's poetry is easy to understand, as in his srories Carver has the knack of chosing the most precise words and of creating totally full characters in just a few words.Carver's main power as a poet is to make even the simplest things in life into epic journeys of a soul who has made his peace with the world. Just like the poetry, the introduction by Tess Harper broght tears to my eyes. If there is a heaven, I am sure Raymond Carver is there, fishing. He is the most human and for me one of the most remarkable of modern writers. Thanks for enriching my life!

This book continually draws me back. While it's a collection of poetry it doesn't push you away or bore the hell out of you. They don't try to be confusing riddles from the writers own ego. These poems are something else altogether. I haven't quite figured out what yet, but there is an honesty and a unique obeservation that make them irresistable. I believe that anyone from any background could find at least one poem in this body of work that truly speaks of their own experience in a way that hits the target directly. They're accesible and personal especially the later poems where Carver talks about his own impending mortality ("What the Doctor Said" is one that does this quite well). Every time I go through the pages something new comes up from the poems. A great collection from a gifted writer. Packaged together very nicely as well and Highly Recommended.

Raymond Carver is one of the finest American writers of short stories and, during his short liftime, (he died at age 50) was acclaimed for this talent. Critics seemed to create the term "minimalist" and label Carver with it---which I believe caused him a disservice. What are readers who do not know his body of work to make of this word: "minimalism?" Labels, in any field, never quite take the measure of the man. What, indeed, is a "compassionate conservative?" Does this label mean that an old-fashioned conservative automatically has no compassion? Does it mean that a "liberal" is automatically compassionate? And where do these labels take and leave us? For readers unfamiliar with Carver's work, does "minimalist" mean that he stints on imagery? on emotion? on plot? If you have never read Carver, you owe it to yourself to find out what all the shouting was/is about. In his stories and here, in this book of collected poems (some of which are published for the first time), he takes everyday life and makes it resonate with great feeling and extraordinary beauty---be the subject married love, nature, fatherhood, fishing or his quickly approaching death by cancer. I find one of the the final, very short poems in this book, "Late Fragment" almost unbearably moving. In it he tells us what he wanted in life: "To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth." Very Highly Recommended.

somone i know once said that some people love carver's stories and other likes his poetry, and that you can't equely love both. i'm deffently one of those who are more of a fan of his poems then of his stories.

reading his poems is like readingg one of his stories after it's been refined into prefection, is such a minimalist language, he manages to kick you right in your soft belly. unlike other poets, he used everyday language and describe in his poems events rather then emotions. which for me, makes them far more emotional. some of those poems just lift my spirit up and reminds me that there's some beauty in the hardship of life.

i gave this book 5 stars because i enjoy raimond carver's poetry and because i wanted one volume with all his poem at a resnable price, but i have to say that the production of the book's far from perfect, too transparent pages, every poem doesn't get it's own page (i know i'm being petty, but that' the way reading poetry should be...) and the type and over all look aren't as inviting as they should be. but i seppose you get what you are willing to pay for.

somone i know once said that some people love carver's stories and other likes his poetry, and that you can't equely love both. i'm deffently one of those who are more of a fan of his poems then of his stories.

reading his poems is like readingg one of his stories after it's been refined into prefection, is such a minimalist language, he manages to kick you right in your soft belly. unlike other poets, he used everyday language and describe in his poems events rather then emotions. which for me, makes them far more emotional. some of those poems just lift my spirit up and reminds me that there's some beauty in the hardship of life.

i gave this book 5 stars because i enjoy raimond carver's poetry and because i wanted one volume with all his poem at a resnable price, but i have to say that the production of the book's far from perfect, too transparent pages, every poem doesn't get it's own page (i know i'm being petty, but that' the way reading poetry should be...) and the type and over all look aren't as inviting as they should be. but i seppose you get what you are willing to pay for.