Getting Under Way: New & Selected Poems [Paperback]

Colette Inez (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is a collection of the best poems from Inez's previous four books, beginning with The Women Who Loved Worms (1972; Carnegie-Mellon, 1992. reprint) and including selections from Family Life (1988; Saturday Pr., 1992. reprint)--as well as 37 new poems not previously collected. Inez's work can be characterized as lively, literate, passionate, and learned. She can write confessionally about being the "bastard" child of a priest; she describes the indignity of a stranger's "rubbery hand" under her blouse in a crowded Parisian cinema. There are poems about various foster mothers and a Catholic orphanage in Belgium suffused with the aroma of "garlic and apples." But many other poems tap the rich cultural tradition of Europe, relying on allusions to Empedocles, Newton, Kant, Dvorak, and Mendelssohn to make their point. Every poem becomes a kind of mirror in which she contemplates the mysteries of her "demon mask." Recommended for all larger poetry collections.
- Daniel Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Advice To A Writer Imagining Conception And Birth
Alive And Taking Names
All Things Are One, Said Empodocles %in A Light As.....
Along The Garonne
Amazon
Animal Bodies In Virginia
Apothegms And Counselss
Bayscenes, Childhood
Belgian Flicks
The Bequest
The Boy In The Pool
The Boy Who Loved Winter
Chateauneuf Du Pape, The Pope's Valet Speaks
The Children Are Going To Far Places
A Collar Rounds My Thoughts
Conspicuous Ability In Literature %counts For Little...
The Dance Of Adolph And Eva
Daughter's Photo In An Old Folks Home
Deanna Durbin, Come Home
Dr. Inez
The Dream Forest
Early June Meditation At Lakeside
Empress In The Mirror
The Entry Of James Ensor Into My Memories Of Brussels
Escape From The Iron Gates
Event Horizons
A Faithful Likeness
Forest Children
Foster Mother Dee's Departure
Gascon Journey
Getting Under Way
Glenn
Good News! Nilda Is Back
Greenlawn Days
Guarding The Unrevealed
The Happy Child
Holding On
Home Movie Of Poland
In Ireland
Lake Song
The Leavetaking
The Letters Of A Name
Lines For Eastern Bluebirds
Listening To Dvorak's Serenade In E
Lost Letters
Max Is Asked To Reach Into The Past For Memories
Maybe
Mayflies
Meeting In London
Men And Women In The Xingu Forest
Midwest Albas
Mirror
Movie Manager, Paris, France
Murdering Numbers
Mya Calendar
Nicolette
Notes From A Gutted House
November Lord
Off Route 303 In The County
Ohio Letters
Old Woman, Eskimo
Orphans Of All Denominations Will Meet
Question For Discussion
Ray
Reading Tu Fu, I Wait For My Husband
The Recluse
Remembering The Dances
River House Inventions
Riverwalk
Ruby Scenes Of Autumn Losses
Santa Cruz Idyll
Seasons Of The War
Seeing Music In Winter
Seine-et-oise
Service For Two, I Shal Dine With Myself
Setting Out From The Lowlands
Seven Stages Of Skeletal Decay
Shaking The Man Awake
Skokie River Cadenzas
Skymyths
Spanish Heaven
Spring Lunch
Startalk In The Greek Luncheonette
Taking Calls In Freeport, New York
The Trapper And The Arctic Fox
Triptych
What Are The Days?
Winter Modes
Without Toys At The Home
The Woman Who Loved Worms
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 155 pages
• Publisher: Story Line Press (May 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0934257604
• ISBN-13: 978-0934257602
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,442,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Colette Inez: A Poet of Courage and Grace, August 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Getting Under Way: New & Selected Poems (Paperback)

Colette Inez is one of the few poets who can transform her personal history so that it becomes as powerful as the stories we hand down from generation to generation. Sad and inspiring, Inez's central theme is her struggle to comprehend and imagine her parents, a scholar and a priest, who abandoned her to a Catholic orphanage in Brussels and eventually foster homes in the United States. As a survivor of abandonment and alcoholic abuse, Inez is especially sensitive to finding those small moments that keep us alive, that give us hope, that allow us to look at the worst of life and move beyond it. She writes of the passion of her parents; the austere life of orphans; the love she has for her own husband; the great artists who inspire her; and the nature of animals, angels, and trees. Those who admire poetry will find Inez a graceful writer who knows how to find just the right words and images to convey difficult personal history so that it never becomes sentimental, so that it gains its own mythic power. Those who have suffered abuse, no matter the source, will see Inez as a survivor of great courage.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a great speaker as well as writer, May 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Getting Under Way: New & Selected Poems (Hardcover)

I would just like to say that i recently got the oppurtunity to meet Mrs. Inez at a high school poetry competetion and she is every bit as graceful and enlightening as her poetry---