In his debut collection, chosen by Mary Karr as a winner of the 2005 National Poetry Series, Tryfon Tolides weaves together poems that speak of desire, loss, and small joys. Tolides was born in a tiny village in Greece and his work is rooted in the mountains and wind and the deep interior of that place; his poems express a longing and a searching for peace, for home, for beauty, for escape. These poems constitute a lament, whether they concern themselves with the difficulties of assimilation or the question of whether it is possible for people to live with one another in a spirit of true understanding. They prove that the physical and the metaphysical can share residence, can even be one and the same.
An Almost Pure Empty Walking (National Poetry Series)
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About the Author
Tryfon Tolides was born in Korifi, Greece, and moved to America at the age of six. He has a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Maine at Farmington and received an M.F.A. in creative writing from Syracuse University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry with heart and mind,
By
This review is from: AN Almost Pure Empty Walking (National Poetry Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
The author's careful use of words paints pictures with very fine strokes indeed. The background, alternating between his Greek homeland and the U.S. is important in making the distinctions in color between the old and new worlds. One can feel the sense of differences he inherited from his mother, and he fills out what she means, walking the ways through his village in Greece, talking to a lonely and forgotten old lady in Connecticut, listening to the peace and contrasting the chaos with the beauty and warmth of the human soul. This is a wonderful book of poetry, one without an agenda, at least one that was overwhelming. For that we must be truly grateful. The distillation of the words amplifies the things which we pass by without thinking daily and provides us a source of atonement, or, at very least, catharsis, should we choose to take part in the communion.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
a brilliant work of poetry,
By Emily Dragoumi "Emily" (Greece) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: AN Almost Pure Empty Walking (National Poetry Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
The book is truly wonderful. It is written in an honest, heartwarming style that evokes lazy summer afternoons long ago, when the world was fresh and innocent. Whether he is reminiscing about his pizza delivery route, or his mother's sufferings as an immigrant or cancer patient, the poet remains faithful in opening up a world we can all identify with: pain, loss, wonder, the everyday sacredness of the ordinary. I highly recommend it.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Empty poetry,
This review is from: AN Almost Pure Empty Walking (National Poetry Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
If you like poetry that involves precisely no imagination, emotionless babble that doesn't say anything, this is probably the book for you. But let me fill you in on a secret: there's plenty of stuff like this on the Internet, just Google "poetry" and click on whatever you like. Reflections on things seen in windows, poor attempts to describe something that didn't happen to the author-- it's all there.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
My mother called this morning, kept trailing away, or off, with complaints about her failure to make it, alone in the house, the night being long, no one to talk to, blaming, in part, America, hating the mess we've found, or made this year. Read the first page New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
My mother called this morning, kept trailing away, or off, with complaints about her failure to make it, alone in the house, the night being long, no one to talk to, blaming, in part, America, hating the mess we've found, or made this year. Read the first page New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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