In Gravity National Park: Poems (Western Literature Series) [Paperback]

C.L. Rawlins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998 | Series: Western Literature Series

In Rawlins' second collection of poetry, he evokes the natural world and the American West in exciting, sensual detail.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A scientist and writer on the environment (Broken Country, 1996) speaks plainly in verse that properly belongs in this series devoted to literature of the West. A regionalist in the best sense, Rawlins embraces the ferocity and majesty of nature, and ends all his poems with a location, though its not clear whether the place indicates where hes writing about or where he wrote the poem, so it seems an affectation. Hes also guilty of an occasional pose in his tough-guy poems about cowboy bars and lonely nights. Rawlins respects the natural world, where nothing listens, and the real work begins, and hopes to describe as it is: large-scaled, dangerous, and marvelous, whether hes watching grouse mate out of season, or communing with the spirit in a cathedral-like forest. Solva Trona Mine, June 30, 1994, a long poem describing his descent into a vast underground, hauntingly captures the panic and awe he experiences 1600 feet below. Rawlinss tales of fire and death respect the land with the same anarchic realism as Edward Abbey, whom he eulogizes as a dessert saint. Rawlinss occasional sops to sentiment and self-pity never undermine his larger goals: to catalogue the miraculous in the natural world he knows so intimately. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

All Souls Day
An American Chinese
Aspens
Between Wars: Spring 1992
The Closing Of The Sky
Drifting In Montana
Drinking In The Space
Early
Elegy For Edward Abbey
Eleison
Fires
Fishing For Brookies In The Boulder Ditch
For Carmen Quintana
For The Listener
Full October
Grace
The Hag
Hypolimnion
I'll Give Night A Body
In Gravity National Park
In Rock Springs, There Will Be A Reading
Independence Day, 1998
Late Friday, In December
Living In At Least Two Worlds
Looking Up At You
The Master Of Small Engines
The Mink
Old Cars And Trucks
On Knife Point Glacier
Paths Crossing
The Rebound
The River
Sacrament With Pitcher Pump
Solvay Trona Mine, June 30, 1994
Tableau
The Weight Of Speech
Winter In Parallel
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press; First edition (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874173221
• ISBN-13: 978-0874173222
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,032,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars "I know the price of knowing", May 1, 2011

By 

Matt Beatty (Provo, Utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Gravity National Park: Poems (Western Literature Series) (Paperback)

Rawlins has a great grasp of language and place--his words interweave emotion and location (mainly Wyoming and parts of Utah) well, well enough to evoke the same. His language at times is a little too abstract, where description goes on without the reader knowing the subject. In these cases, consideration of the title or a more careful reading usually helps to decipher, but I am fan of more concrete language and symbolism in poetry. That small critique aside, this collection of poetry is wonderful. I have a particular attachment to these locations, the scenery, the lifestyles and people, and Rawlins' love of these things is evident. I am ready to pick up another of his collections.

--- ---

"'Love's a debt,' / ... Tin cup to catch heart's blood." -- "Late Friday, in December" (21)

"Sometimes, this is all we have-- / strong drink, the bump of bodies in the smoke, / voices sounding twice off varnished pine" -- "Late Friday, in December" (21)

"I know / the price of knowing" -- "On Knife Point Glacier" (39)

"In love or dream the world, / if we are lucky, is begun: / ... a wish that one thing live / for one thing left undone." -- "'Enter My Dreams, My Love'" (65)

"Too cold / to stand, let alone to think, / ... night composes night, / half darkness and half sense, / blooms in the willows, / bleeds into the water, / ... the first star swims up into view." -- "The Mink" (51)