Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems [Paperback]

Tom Clark (Author), Amy Gerstler (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2006

Essential for all readers of progressive American poetry, this collection encompasses the exhilaration and joy, the madness and sorrow of the last forty years with a lyric intensity that, in the words of the poet Robert Creeley, offers a “wry and securing truth.” A generous selection from the poet’s career, Light and Shade is a major release from one of the country’s most influential poets and critics.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Disarmingly casual yet saturated with loss, Clark's body of work revels in simplicities: lovers, friends, cities and landscapes (New York, Southern California, the Southwest), baseball, basketball, modern painters, sad weather, brief visions and ethereal promises. All make repeat appearances in a poetry rooted at once in spontaneity and in High Romantic aspiration. A rising star in the 1960s (when he served as poetry editor for the Paris Review), Clark is optimistic, even mystical, in his first books, then got quieter and gloomier later, crafting a tired, even baffled poetry to suit what one poem calls his "New West," where "The poor remedy of days can't ease us," and "places sometimes speak to you most deeply/ Just when you are about to leave." Late work looks over and over at the mood of the moment, even at the weather, watching gray and white fog or clear skies "While everything external/ dies away in the far off/ echo of the soul." (Apr.)
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About the Author

Tom Clark has served as poetry editor of The Paris Review and as a poetry critic for the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. He has published numerous poetry collections and a number of critical biographies, including lives of baseball great Mark Fidrych and writers Jack Kerouac and Charles Olson. He lives in Berkeley and teaches at New College of California. Amy Gerstler is a literary critic whose own poetry has received a National Book Critics Circle Award.

Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Coffee House Press (April 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566891833
• ISBN-13: 978-1566891837
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 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: #2,205,015 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tom Clark does it again, May 3, 2006

By 

Debra Zebra "Dizzy" (Oakland,CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Light and Shade: New and Selected Poems (Paperback)

This selection of relaxed but focused poems takes the reader by surprise. One expects the same observations, but that perception is turned around. the reader is puzzled for a few moments, and then sees the artistry of the poet and the originality. There's no one like Tom Clark.