The Horse Fair (Pitt Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Robin Becker (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0822957205 | ISBN-13: 978-0822957201 | Publication Date: March 9, 2000 | Edition: 1

Becker investigates how marginalized individuals negotiate public and private spheres, while inventing sustainable communities. She also explores anti-Semitism, cross-dressing, and painter Rosa Bonheur's lifelong relationships with women.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Describing a woodpecker, Robin Becker writes, 'Far-flung orbit of energy . . . a restless aptitude drives her hungers . . .' She could just as well be describing her own far flung imagination, her own hungers made manifest in language. The Horse Fair is a beautifully crafted book, wise and forgiving." -- Linda Pastan

"I treasure these redemptive poems by Robin Becker, who writes with compassion and amazing vitality about the grief, afflictions, and foibles of trees, animals, and humans bound together on this dangerous planet. Her book is an exquisite manual on how to live." -- Shirley Kaufman

"The Horse Fair is a moving, soulful, fluid meditation on being a Jew as this century closes. Robin Becker is a generous, compassionate, incisive guide through mysterious and heartbreaking terrain. -- Carol Maso

"These narratives pay loving attention to several personal and historical tragedies. They record life with a tenderness that is easily trusted, despite forces bearing down on their subjects which would have it that their souls be obscured. This is one soulful collection of poems." -- Jane Miller

Describing a woodpecker, Robin Becker writes, 'Far-flung orbit of energy . . . a restless aptitude drives her hungers . . .'The Horse Fair is a beautifully crafted book, wise and forgiving." -- Linda Pastan

I treasure these redemptive poems by Robin Becker, who writes with compassion and amazing vitality about the grief, afflictions, and foibles of trees, animals, and humans bound together on this dangerous planet. Her book is an exquisite manual on how to live. -- Shirley Kaufman

It's hard to know where to begin praising this collection, it contains so many virtues: unremitting, intellectual brilliance and acute historical understanding, especially about being an outsider and a survivor.... -- Jonathan Holden

The Abandoned Meander
Adult Child
Against Silence
Angels Of The Lower East Side
Autumn Song
Community Garden, Sixth Street And Avenue B
Dog-god
The Donor
Dylan's Fault
Elegy For A Secular Man
Ephemera
The Evidence
The Grief Of Trees
Harvest Girl
The Horse Fair
In Praise Of The Basset Hound
In The Days Of Awe: 1. Amidah
In The Days Of Awe: 10. The Fast Of Yom Kippur
In The Days Of Awe: 11. Selihot
In The Days Of Awe: 12. Amidah
In The Days Of Awe: 2. Shofar
In The Days Of Awe: 3. Tashlikh
In The Days Of Awe: 4. Aleinu
In The Days Of Awe: 5. Teshuvah
In The Days Of Awe: 6. Amidah
In The Days Of Awe: 7. Avinu Malkeinu
In The Days Of Awe: 8. Kedushah
In The Days Of Awe: 9. Mourner's Kaddish
The Keeper
Late Words For My Sister
Life Forms
The Liz Christy-bowery Houston Garden
Mid-life
Midnight At The Third Street Sculpture Garden
The Monarchs Of Parque Tranquilidad
Phaeton
Raccoon
Rustic Portrait
Sad Sestina
Sisters In Perpetual Motion
Solstice Bay
Sonnet To The Imagination
The Triumph Of Charlotte Salomon
The Unnamed City
Wants
Why We Fear The Amish
The Wood Lot
Yoga
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

These narratives pay loving attention to several personal and historical tragedies. They record life with a tenderness that is easily trusted, despite forces bearing down on their subjects which would have it that their souls be obscured. This is one soulful collection of poems. -- Jane Miller

This generous poet is never less than attentive and responsive to the world that surrounds her. -- The New York Times Book Review, Carmela Ciuraru

What I love in Robin Becker's poems is how much the world is with her; characters, histories, animals, places, and things crowd onto these pages, inscribing them with the cries of the living.... -- Mark Doty

About the Author

Robin Becker's fourth collection, ALL-AMERICAN GIRL, won the 1996 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. For an essay and long poem , she won the 1997 Virginia Faulkner Prize for Excellence in Writing from PRAIRIE SCHOONER magazine.

Associate Professor of English and Women's Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, Becker has received fellowships from the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Her poems and book reviews have appeared in publications including AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, BOSTON GLOBE, GETTYSBURG REVIEW, and PLOUGHSHARES. Becker serves as Poetry Editor for WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS. During the 19981999 academic year, she was a visiting scholar at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies of the City University of New York.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; 1 edition (March 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822957205
• ISBN-13: 978-0822957201
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 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: #2,684,554 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

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FABULOUS!, December 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Horse Fair (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Robin Becker writes about being a woman, feminist and a Jew using the historical personas of painters Rosa Bonheur and Charlotte Solomon. As always, Becker writes from her own point of view in a way that speaks to all of us about love, frienship and family. A wonderful addition to her ouvre!

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FABULOUS!, December 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Horse Fair (Pitt Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Robin Becker writes about being a woman, feminist and a Jew using the historical personas of painters Rosa Bonheur and Charlotte Solomon. As always, Becker writes from her own point of view in a way that speaks to all of us about love, frienship and family. A wonderful addition to her ouvre!