Atlas: Poems [Paperback]

Katrina Vandenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 30, 2004

This debut collection of poetry by Katrina Vandenberg draws on different meanings of the title, carrying lines from one poem to the next and capturing the reverberations of events across time and place. One poem links an image of the poet's sister — paused in housekeeping work — to a maid in a Vermeer painting and a woman being "made over" on Oprah. Another compares an ex-lover's HIV to a 19th-century tulip epidemic. Quiet yet forthright, intimate yet generous, Vandenberg's poems map the intersections of history, art, love, death, and desire.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Katarina Vandenberg uses playfully intoxicating metaphors to launder the simplicities and eccentricities of life." -- Flaunt

Katrina. . . has always traced the patterns and rhythms she discovers. . . in life. . . . She translates those patterns and rhythms into poetry. -- The News-Herald, November 28, 2004

[Atlas] employs a language and flair for expression that transcends time. . . drawing upon personal family artifacts, memories, ideas, and friends. -- The Midwest Book Review, January 2005

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions (September 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571314199
• ISBN-13: 978-1571314192
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #792,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Transcends time while drawing upon personal family artifacts, January 9, 2005

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atlas: Poems (Paperback)

The debut poetry collection of Katrina Vandenberg employs a language and flair for expression that transcends time while drawing upon personal family artifacts, memories, ideas, and friends. Marrying Late: When I think of what it means not to marry/the high school sweetheart, but to find each other/as we did at ages thirty and forty, I think/of John and I singing along to an old cassette/of Jackson Browne on car trips, and how, as we sing,/a part of me is hearing the song for the first time/in Detroit, on WRIF with my first boyfriend/in his truck as he took curves, shifting hard and fast./And probably John is making love with a black-haired girl/in the carpeted back of his van in 1979, out west,/the cassette new and popular, draining the battery./How unlikely that we ended up traveling together/singing a song we each learned with someone else./Neither of us minds that, the way we might have then.

5.0 out of 5 stars perfect, August 5, 2011

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smcoger - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Atlas: Poems (Paperback)

perfect! The experience with this vendor was just what I wanted: quick and easy with a quality, as-promised book at the end of it.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!!, January 12, 2006

By 

Susan Heaney (Jerusalem, Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Atlas: Poems (Paperback)

My daughter brought this book of poetry home on a visit and before she even got out of bed the next morning I had pretty much devoured it. I bought three copies - one for me and the other two for friends, who also raved about it. The poems opened me up to emotions I don't usually access very easily and they also awakened my mind to new insights. I am sure I will be coming back to this book many times.