The Gatehouse Heaven: Poems [Hardcover]

James Kimbrell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998 | ISBN-10: 1889330132 | ISBN-13: 978-1889330136 | Edition: 1st

Selected by Charles Wright as the 1997 Winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Kimbrell's excellent first collection of poetry bores into the core of what it is to be human, while showcasing his obvious love of language in four cohesive sections that examine the relationships between self and other. It is in these spaces of "in between" that Kimbrell's inspired visions find their greatest strength.

The poems in the first part of the book depict the divide between darkness and light, sky and earth, being and nothingness. In the poem "Rooftop," for example, the transformation of the speaker occurs while climbing the water tower, "half-visible" within the inconceivable island of air that the birds occupy. In section two, the title poem, a lyrical poem in 10 parts, centers upon the relationship between a father swaying at the edge of insanity and a son who can only watch his father's decay, even after he feels that the final words of good-bye have been said. Section three introduces human insignificance almost as a balm to the devastation of the previous poems. In the poem "A Slow Night on Texas Street," the nightly news creates only a small pocket of silence in a bar where routine life continues, as if it is merely writing "someone's name on the breath-wet window." In section four, the book turns to an acknowledgement of self, of the personal role that a concrete character plays in a fickle world that barely records one's name on the program. In "Self-Portrait, Jackson," the speaker shifts the reader into a homecoming that parallels Thomas Wolfe's declaration in his novel "You Can't Go Home Again." Nothing and everything has changed. You can clean yourself up, but you can't take yourself out of your hometown's version of who you were.

Kimbrell, more than many poets, gives us close access to his poetry--not by trite universality nor overly easy imagery but by putting us immediately and courageously in his fine line of vision. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

From a solitary Southern childhood where he had a hand in his sister's trysts, to a South Korean journey in adulthood ("this life/ disguised as the next"), Kimbrell's speaker often plays the role of onlooker. The first of five sections here captures a wandering, cryptic loneliness in occasionally monosyllabic cadences reminiscent of James Wright: "It was/ the middle of the night so far into the field/ The deer began not to notice the moons/ In the shallow bean row puddles." The title section, a long, deep meditation on the poet's relationship with his mentally ill father, exposes his own confusion with stubborn, unsettling clarity: "And now, if I should want to speak to him, I'd have/ No idea where to go, though he is far from gone." While this debut, introduced by Charles Wright, contains a pleasing range of modes (poems like "Letters to a Vanishing Fianc?e" and "At the Green Grocer with Mrs. Thibodeau" reveal that Kimbrell can be playful, too), at times the cost of their diffuseness is a certain mannered distance and lack of immediacy. The lushness of the more classically tinged contemplations ("If/ the swollen, cart-wheeling transgressors/ of desire begin to desire once more/ who'd not let the blue-with-death demons/ untie their hands and follow their/ laughing down the hall?") often works to bridge the gap, but doesn't quite match up with the self-revelatory tendencies of others.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Sarabande Books; 1st edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889330132
• ISBN-13: 978-1889330136
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,304,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry that begs to be read outloud., July 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gatehouse Heaven: Poems (Paperback)

An unbelieveable first volume, nominated for a Pulitzer, this very talented poet has delivered images of rural Mississippi that transcend time and geography. In the title poem, the poet takes the reader with him through the gates of the asylum and into the dark world of his father's unrelenting schizophrenia. This is a poem which begs to be read aloud.

Mr. Kimbrell will be a force to be reckoned with in the world of academia and poetry in the years to come. His writing is very accessible, fluid and pure. The foreword by his former teacher (himself a Pulitzer recipient) has been criticized as being "perfunctory"...only so, in my opinion, until the poetry has been read aloud. Only then will the reader understand the genius of this young poet and the excitement with which Charles Wright witnesses the beginning of a great career.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kimbrell's poetry is so REAL., October 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gatehouse Heaven: Poems (Paperback)

This work is pure genius. The images are vivid and reminiscent of my own childhood in the south. Every poem takes you somewhere whether it's the southern U.S. or Asia. You are there. You can see it and smell it and taste it. Every time I re-read the poems, I discover something new there I had not seen before.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Great Kimbrell, May 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gatehouse Heaven: Poems (Paperback)

This is a great book, although it is rather short. I read it a few times. I went to one of his readings at a local university and he is a great guy, his poetry is well written, it is not five star work yet.