Customer Reviews

Door in the Mountain: New and Collected Poems, 1965-2003 (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

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She says the most with the least. Her poems to me are perfect. They are the ones you whisper to yourself. They are the secret things you would write in your school notebook when you knew no one was looking. They should be put line by line into fortune cookies and sold in novelty stores. The next time we are afraid of a country which is threatening us we should wage preemptive peace on them by skywriting these poems above their capitals. This is what poems sound like when your mother sings to you in the womb. These are what the lines in your hands say if you knew how to read them. This is music that drifts off in the wind. Who else would compare two old lovers lying in bed together to two worn pages of a children's coloring book, still warm from the crayons? Here is a special Valentine for you.

This is the ninth collection of poetry Jean Valentine has published over a period of forty years. This lush voloume gathers all of her published work for the first time, exhibiting her vast artistic range. She continues to be an important and original voice in American poetry. She writes poetry that opens and heals, which carries an intimacy that asks for nothing more or less than our presence.

Jean Valentine has been the recipient of many awards and honors, including some of the most prestigeous in America. She currently teaches in New York and spends a lot of time in Ireland.

Jean Valentine has had a rich career. This book brings together all her pervious volumes so the reader may see her progression from a passionate, visceral sapling, to a sturdy oak. Her poetry is emotive, poignant, with moments of sheer perfection. I very rarely enjoy a poets entire body of work, but Valentine holds fast in her verse over the years, evolving her message over time, but never losing her voice.

Everyone should own this book: there is a verse for every palate.

This is the best book of poems this year... Valentine is a marvel, a complete original, and so unbelievably non-PC, it makes me think the previous reviewer is reading something in another language. Totally idiotic review. Get this book.

What makes poetry, poetry. Too many of these "poems" are just spurts of words with no rhythm and little feeling. I was very disappointed after reading some very good reviews of her work.