With his new collection, Neeli Cherkovski continues the exploration started with his award winning Leaning Against Time. He once again opens the window to the self and takes us deeper into his search for reason, redemption and love. Cherkovski takes us on a journey through his innermost being, leading us From the Canyon Outward.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
What stamps Cherkovski's poetry as unique is its unbounded lyricism, a lyrical gift easily greater than that of any other poet of his generation. --Gerald Nicosia, San Francisco Chronicle
I squirm against blurb words like "magisterial" and "fully realized" and God knows "profound," but Neeli Cherkovski s new book is a deeply rich work which reminds me of the best of Rexroth's nature poems, which to me is a major accomplishment. But more than that, there's a deep philosophical and elegiac edge to the beauty of the words & lines. --David Meltzer, poet, musician, essayist
Neeli Cherkovski has mastered the lyricism of the clear-seeing heart. In these poems, he sets us down in the middle of the mystery of existence and experience. From the Canyon Outward is a joy to read and inhabit. --Sarah Menefee, poet, community activist
I squirm against blurb words like "magisterial" and "fully realized" and God knows "profound," but Neeli Cherkovski s new book is a deeply rich work which reminds me of the best of Rexroth's nature poems, which to me is a major accomplishment. But more than that, there's a deep philosophical and elegiac edge to the beauty of the words & lines. --David Meltzer, poet, musician, essayist
Neeli Cherkovski has mastered the lyricism of the clear-seeing heart. In these poems, he sets us down in the middle of the mystery of existence and experience. From the Canyon Outward is a joy to read and inhabit. --Sarah Menefee, poet, community activist
About the Author
Neeli Cherkovski is a longtime contributor to the West Coast literary scene. Emerging from the Los Angeles underground of the Sixties, Cherkovski is an applauded poet, critic and literary biographer. He has written ten books of poetry, including the award winning Leaning Against Time, Elegy for Bob Kaufman and Animal; two acclaimed biographies, Bukowski: A Life and Ferlinghetti: A Biography; his book, Whitman s Wild Children (a collection of critical memoirs), has become an underground classic. In the late 1960s Cherkovski co-edited the poetry anthology Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns with Charles Bukowski. Since 1975, Neeli has lived and worked in San Francisco. For ten years he was Writer-in-Residence at New College of California, where he taught literature and philosophy.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cherkovski's best work yet,
This review is from: From the Canyon Outward (Paperback)
I just received this book this evening and read nearly all of it at once. It is outstanding. The best new poetry I have read in a long time. Some poets are at their best in their youth before they get published. Some poets, like William Everson, dedicate their lives to the cause and create their best work in their later years. Neeli Cherkovski is of the latter class... Wisdom abounds throughout this book. Excerpts of the poems could be taken out and printed separately as zen koans. For instance, the following is taken from the final poem of the book, Big Sur: "the body finds its way / to the mind, when the body / goes, so goes the coast". Compare that excerpt to the following in the very first poem, Lost in the Canyon, reminiscent of the great nature poets: "he taps my shoulder when the water rises / we walk up the cliff and touch sails / half-buried in fog".
This book is filled with poems that capture the spirit of love, nature, mythology, indigenous people, poets, age, the list goes on... There are odes to Garcia Lorca and Charles Bukowski. There are reminisces of 1967. There are flashes of insight and stunning juxtapositions of words and simple narratives with coded messages that could be interpreted in multiple ways... I am excited to read the remaining poems that I have left, and later, to read it again. Reading this book is like going on a journey with one of the truly great minds of our time. It gives me hope, and makes me feel alive, but at the same time, makes me wish that there were more poets like Neeli who never gave up in their quest for the truth. Cherkovski is one of the few remaining bards who came of age in the sixties. Yet his bridge to this time, and to the timeless of time, is what makes him stand apart. Definitely my best purchase of the year.
5.0 out of 5 stars
From The Canyon Outward,
By
This review is from: From the Canyon Outward (Paperback)
A Review of From The Canyon Outward
The cover of From The Canyon Outward by Neeli Cherkovski has a four-way stop with people crossing the road and cars turning. We follow the main part of the road before us up the hill and into two tall trees. There is an opening on either side and in those openings are the influences of Neeli Cherkovski. The ancient writings of the poets he read growing up and still reads and the influence of The Beats or Bukowski and more modern poetry. Both these influences are here. But there is another facet of the cover that maybe you missed when you picked up the book. A single bird flying over a street lamp. Perhaps this bird is angelic and the muse. Or it could be the red tail hawks in the poem, In The Northern Cascades. Or the hummingbird in Lorca In The Morning, the wild birds in Love At Night? This is a book that you immediately hear in the voice of the poet himself. These poems by Neeli Cherkovski have touched my heart as I knew they would. Chris Mansel
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the Canyon Outward,
This review is from: From the Canyon Outward (Paperback)
This is a new book from an accomplished poet.
Deeply personal, deeply natural, real lyrics moving... I urge poets and lovers of poetry to give this book a glance into what is possible in poetry today.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
