Fire & Flower [Paperback]

Laura Kasischke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1998

Poetry. Three sections of ten poems each, which revel in the gorgeous possibilities of language even as they acknowledge the impossibility of language to contain the things it describes: "But there will always be/storms & gray//that settle on their shoulders blurred as sparrows//before they fly away. Seasons/and the names for them will change." (from "A is for Almost") "Kasischke's world...is a world in which grace and horror, beauty and carnage, tragedy and hilarity commingle."-Harvard Review. Kasischke is the author of two previous collections of poems, Wild Brides and Housekeeping in a Dream, and the novel Suspicious River. She has been the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and currently teaches at Washtenaw Community College in Michigan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"As a poetry of the entangled passionate and familial tragedies that poets in postwar America have opted to write into the public record, I have found no collection of poems more moving or profoundly aware or skilled with intensity and restraint than this one." -- Michigan Quarterly Review

"Kasischke's world...is a world in which grace and horror, beauty and carnage, tragedy and hilarity commingle." -- Harvard Review

1965
The Admiral
The Baby Learns To Say Baby
Bad News
Barney
Burial
Cabbage
The Cause Of All My Suffering
Confections
Dear Air
Dear Earth
Dear Fire
Dear Water
Do Not Leave Baby Unattended
Fire & Flower
Galaxy
Gas Chamber At San Quentin
Gray, As Flowers
Greenland Mummy, Infant
Her Purse
Hostess
Infants Corner
A Is For Almost
A Long Commute
Prayer
Pregnant At The All-night Supermarket
The Tarred & Feathered Heart
What I Hear In Your Hair
Wolves
The World's Largest Living Thing
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author

Laura Kasischke attended the University of Michigan and Columbia University. She teaches writing at Washtenaw Community College in Michigan. She has been the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bobst Award for Emerging Writers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Alice James Books (December 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882295218
• ISBN-13: 978-1882295210
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,144,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laura Kasischke teaches in the University of Michigan MFA program and the Residential College. She has published seven collections of poetry and seven novels. She lives with her family in Chelsea, Michigan.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Astonishing Voice, March 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Fire & Flower (Paperback)

Laura Kasischke's writing, in both her poems and her novels, is brilliantly original. She handles difficult subject matter with unblinking honesty, but doesn't ignore the power of ironic humor. There is a real person behind these poems, and I feel lucky to have finally found a poet/writer whose work I never tire of. You know that record you've played over and over and still haven't grown tired of, the songs that sound fresh every time like the first time? That's how this writer works for me.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Strange and Beautiful Book of Poems, November 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fire & Flower (Paperback)

This is a strange and beautiful book of poems. Laura Kasischke writes vividly, but the poems are also creepy and mysterious. I've had the honor of taking her class at Washtenaw Community College twice now, and I have to say she is one of the funniest, nicest ladies I've ever met. Where she finds these frightening images and subjects beats the heck out of me, but that just adds to the mystery, and makes me love these poems even more.