How Beautiful the Beloved [Paperback]

Gregory Orr (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2009

“[A] confident, mystical, expansive project.”—Publishers Weekly

“[D]azzling and timeless . . . focus is so unwaveringly aimed toward the transcendent—not God, but the beloved—that we seem to slip into a less cluttered time.”—The Virginia Quarterly Review, “Editor’s Choice”

"Mary Oliver calls him '...a Walt Whitman without an inch of Whitman's bunting or oratory.' In these pages, he is more nearly a modern-day Rumi. This is not primarily a poetry of image, but of ideas, perfectly distilled. Orr brings together the monumental themes of love and loss in small, spare, and exquisite koan-like poems."—ForeWord

"...magnetic poems that open the world of lyrical verse to the larger questions of what is true and timeless."
—The Bloomsbury Review

Gregory Orr continues his acclaimed project on the “beloved” with a lyrical sequence about the joys and hungers of being fully engaged in life. Through concise, perfectly formed poems, he wakes us to the ecstatic possibilities of recognizing and risking love. Mary Oliver has called this project “gorgeous,” and said that he "speaks of the events that have no larger or more important rival in our lives—of our love and our loving."

If to say it once
And once only, then still
To say: Yes.

And say it complete,
Say it as if the word
Filled the whole moment
With its absolute saying.

Later for “but,”
Later for “if.”

Now
Only the single syllable
That is the beloved.
That is the world.

Gregory Orr is the author of ten books of poetry. He teaches at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his sequel to Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved (2005), Orr offers more short (many don't break 10 lines), earnest poems that take as their central metaphor the beloved, Orr's word for a conflation of a loved human being, the idea of a kind of higher power beyond the self at which love and energy are directed, and the poetry itself, which bears all this praise in what Orr calls the Book. The best of these poems are compact missives addressing in the most direct language possible many of humanity's most dire needs and fears: That single line: a rope/ The poem tossed out/ Into the dark./... / You're holding one end; The beloved, the other.// Rescue is imminent.// Too soon to say whose. Elsewhere, the language is so direct that it's more like journaling than poetry. Most perplexing and interesting, however, are many poems in which the language would fall flat, except that Orr's line breaks add meaning and almost Rilkian power; imagine this going down the page: ...death is real, and all/ That is/ Flows toward its brink.// No wonder we need/ Hope and courage—// What the book brings. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Gregory Orr is the author of ten books of poetry, four collections of criticism, and a memoir that was selected by Publishers Weekly as a "Best Book of the Year." The former poetry editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review, Orr teaches at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville.

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press; First Edition edition (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556592833
• ISBN-13: 978-1556592836
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.4 x 0.5 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: #369,022 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 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Focusing on happiness and the many paths towards it, June 16, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Beautiful the Beloved (Paperback)

Seasoned and prolific poet Gregory Orr returns to readers with yet another volume, "How Beautiful the Beloved", focusing on happiness and the many paths towards it. Each poem details his own take on many of the possible routes. "How Beautiful the Beloved" is upbeat and uplifting, highly recommended. A sample: What death shatters/(sliver in the dirt, /shard in the heart),//Song will find/No matter/How scattered./Poem will gather/into its pattern.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Beloved is Indeed Beautiful and Inspiring, April 10, 2010

By 

P. Mccarthy "Pat M" (Woodstock ,VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How Beautiful the Beloved (Paperback)

In How Beautiful The Beloved, Orr signifies Whitman's optimism and scope to explore the many facets of "the beloved." Poet Mary Oliver states, "Greg Orr is a Walt Whitman without an inch of Whitman's bunting or oratory." Indeed, it is difficult not to think of Whitman's hopefulness and commitment to living life to its fullest as Orr masterfully orchestrates this volume of exquisite verse.

Orr begins his unified collection with utter sanguinity, "If to say once/And once only, then still/To say: Yes." Much like Whitman, Orr's speaker is ready to embrace "the beloved" physically, emotionally, and spiritually. From the start, the speaker is unwilling to limit the reach of the beloved. The beloved transcends gender: "The Book said the beloved died,/But also that she comes again,/That he's reborn as words." As the speaker continues, he illuminates the many relationships of mankind to the beloved. The speaker muses, "How we embrace the beloved/So tightly that fate itself/Was changed into destiny."

Orr's collection is broken into four parts, each part tackling another aspect of the beloved. Part one focuses on the origins of the beloved. The speaker wrestles with questions such as, "How does the beloved enter the world?" Or better yet, "How does the beloved enter our world, our own personal lives?" Part two discusses the setbacks of embracing the beloved and the detrimental effects of losing the beloved. The speaker states, "We let the beloved go/Without a song or poem,/And that diminished us." In part three, the speaker begins to recognize that the beloved never really left; the beloved has simply taken on another form, another poem. The speaker states, "Who says there's nothing written/On the Book's blank pages?/Some have simply faded/And need to be written again." In part four, the speaker celebrates the gift of the beloved and the exciting possibilities of the relationship that can exist between mankind and the beloved, the relationship between mankind and poetry.

How Beautiful The Beloved is indeed beautiful and will be loved by those who fall under its enchanting spell.