Lightning at Dinner: Poems (Paperback)

~ Jim Moore (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The poems in Moore's sixth book are passionate meditations on love, partnership, loss, and aging. Moore, in the title poem, delicately renders the complexities of partnership: "Our hands / touch, finally, hours / after our argument." He looks back compassionately at his past: "I floated in the large wind / of my childhood...waiting patiently, the good boy I was, / for all that easiness to end." He variously figures his death: "...let there be thunder on that day," "...it is good to sleep the night through without waking." Though Moore is not as edgy or grim, fans of Louise Glück will find a voice they can relate to, as will readers of Tony Hoagland. Occasionally, Moore is prone to limp lines, in which original formulations cede the stage to unaffecting expressions, such as in a poem that ends, "Try...not / going all the way." There are also a handful of unconvincing, familiar, or overly sentimental moments, such as when a dog is asked to "tell me / what life is like / for those who love / without condition or restraint." But the book offers accessible and moving reflections on the surprises available to anyone willing to pay close attention.
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From Booklist

In the midst of life, Dante found himself he knew not where. Moore knows very well where he is, and he takes consolation from the place, even though it isn't the transcendent, just order revealed to Dante, but only the world he and we know. Oppressed by his mother's impending death, in "You Are Human," the opening poem, Moore considers being "a lake, / a way to lie still in the world." But a lake is a route for boating humans from shore to shore, he thinks, and the effort collapses. The poems immediately following elaborate the contradiction between longed-for stillness and necessary continuation, between the end of suffering and the ineluctability of time, as Moore grieves his own as well as his mother's death. Her passing recurs throughout the rest of the book, integrated with and enriched by the many later poems that quietly revel--not without sadness and anger, and quite often with the aesthetic humility of classical Chinese and Japanese verse--in nature, art, literature, travel, and love. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (July 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555974252
• ISBN-13: 978-1555974251
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #718,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Regional Poets and why they are universal, January 26, 2006

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Jim Moore continues his series of poetry collections from his home base in Minnesota and while he is widely read, he is often dismissed by some critics as too plain, too simple, too 'regional' to make a difference. The lovers of poetry are encouraged to read this latest collection LIGHTNING AT DINNER and decide for themselves.

Moore's plainspoken language is the product of a life committed to his own values. His imprisonment for refusing to go to Vietnam, his subsequent observations about aging, death, the solitary existence, and the survey of the unnoticed events we call life provide him with far deeper thoughts to convey than his simple words at first suggest. For example in 'Against Empire' he summarizes big thoughts with the lines 'Small olives taste best./ Small stars shine farthest./ Small birds call/ most sweetly. Small lives/ we are small, small lives.' Think about the paucity of words with the universal meaning.

And in 'Brief Lives (2): Warning' he writes '6 A.M., the hour of the serious fishermen/ who stand quietly in orange slickers/ as they sway slightly in the small boats/ far out to sea. Those ancient warnings,/ the pelicans, patrol the world closer at hand./ It is the hour when the nurse tries to wake my mother,/ then lets her fall back again/ into the sea. Some fish are not worth/ the keeping. Asleep again, asleep again,/ her heart rejoices. And the great escape continues,/ alone, in darkness, far under the surface.' Moore manages in these lines to speak not only of coma, of loss and death but of the also of the cycle of life as perceived by a son's quiet time with his dying parent.

Moore continues his dialogue with the errors of the politics that disturb the world's tenure. 'I remember my mother toward the end,/ folding the tablecloth after dinner/ so carefully,/ as if it were the flag/ of a country that no longer existed,/ but once had ruled the world.' This 'simple' analogical method of conveying his feels through the imagery of small things is what, for this reader, makes him signifcant: perhaps his `regional isolation' indeed makes his words more universally fresh and poignant. These are poems for pause, for thought, and for the sheer beauty of language. Grady Harp, January 06

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful meditation upon the power of art to express and distill feelings of loss, January 10, 2006

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

The sixth poetry collection by Jim Moore, Lighting At Dinner is a thoughtful meditation upon the power of art to express and distill feelings of loss. The topics explored include losing one's mother forever, seeing another country, or the shock of experiencing a war fought against one's own wishes, in one's own name. The poignant free verse perfectly captures the timeless nuance of wistful emotion. Teaching the Dog Not to Nip: Do you think it's easy, / not biting / the one you love? / Try loving someone so much / your mouth is only at home / in the place where your teeth / meet the flesh / of your beloved. Try / not tasting the flesh, not taking in your mouth / the beloved, not / going all the way.

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful poems, simple and profound, March 6, 2008

By	Pearl (Colorado Springs CO) - See all my reviews

Jim Moore has a knack for distilling experiences to their essence; in a few words, he can go to the heart of complex emotions and situations. His poems have great spiritual resonance--and great humor. You will love not only the poems but the poet by the time you finish reading the book.