Love Had a Compass: Journals and Poetry (Grove Press Poetry Series) [Hardcover]

Robert Lax (Author)

Book Description

Series: Grove Press Poetry Series | Publication Date: May 17, 1996

Ever generation of poets seems to harbor its own hidden genius, one whose stature and brilliance come to light after his talent has already been achieved and exercised. The same drama of obscurity and nuance that attended the discovery of Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens is suggested by the career of Robert Lax. An expatriate American whose work to date — more than forty books — has been published mostly in Europe, this 85-year-old poet built a following in the U.S. among figures as widespread as Mark Van Doren, e. e. cummings, Jack Kerouac, and Sun Ra. The works in Love Had a Compass represent every stage of Lax's development as a poet, from his early years in the 1940s as a staff writer for The New Yorker to his present life on the Greek Island of Patmos. An inveterate wanderer, Lax's own sense of himself as both exile and pilgrim is carefully evoked in his prose journals and informs the pages of the Marseille Diaries, published here for the first time. Together with the poems, they provide the best portrait available to date of one of the most striking and original poets of our age.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lax is a somewhat legendary poet known primarily for two reasons: he traveled in a circle in the 1930s that included Thomas Merton, John Berryman, Robert Giroux and Ad Reinhardt; and he has lived and written on the Greek island of Patmos since the early 1960s. This combination of famous friendships and personal obscurity has added heat to his reputation but not much light?his poetry has been obscured by his myth. This volume, however, will likely introduce Lax's considerable poetic power to a wider audience. Uebbing's introduction captures the essence of Lax's work: "A simple response to a simple moment"; "much of his work is almost devoid of imagery." Lax's early poems are a mix of emotionality ("for we must seek/ by going down,/ down into the city/ for our song") and formal experimentation ("black/ black/ white/ white/ black/ black/ white/ white"). But his finest work can be seen in the previously unpublished sequence of poems, Port City: The Marseille Diaries. Drawing on the people and places he encountered during an extended, down-and-out time in the city during the 1950s, in "Port City" Lax finally declares his mission: "I will sing you/ of the moments/ sing you/ of those/ possibly/ meaningless moments."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A contemporary of Thomas Merton and John Berryman, Lax is meticulous, quiet, and deeply spiritual. He holds court in a self-induced vacuum (in this case, a small Greek island): "looking and naming: not doing very much more." Lax, who once traveled with a circus, discovers the perfect blend of sacred and profane in the 45-page cycle "The Circus of the Sun." "Can this have been built in one day?" he asks, seeing the billowing tents. Lax's ability to pinpoint individuality carries over to the book's other long poetic cycle, "Port City: The Marseilles Diaries." Not nearly as grandiose or imagistic as the circus cycle, these poems point toward his minimalist (or "concrete") pieces?perhaps the only work by Lax widely published in America. The volume concludes with a long prose journal, shedding light not so much on the poems as on Lax's well-honed process. Recommended for larger collections.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly with "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st edition (May 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080211587X
• ISBN-13: 978-0802115874
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,495,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quiet as expressed in words, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Love Had a Compass: Journals and Poetry (Grove Press Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

This book describes silence in gorgeous prose and poetry. I recommend it to anyone who loves the sound and feel of the written word and the sound and feel of quiet.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Essential Work of a Poet-Saint, May 7, 2004

By 

Juan Mobili (Valley Cottage, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Had a Compass: Journals and Poetry (Grove Press Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

Robert Lax, as much as the author of a wondrous body of poetic work as for his choice of a contemplative way of living his life, is one of those writers one must know, and know deeply.

As it happens so often when it comes to poetry, the recognition of artistic achievement does not always translate into any kind of sizable exposure to the general reading public, and, in Lax's case, it may even be limited even in poetry-loving circles. To make matters even more complicated, Robert Lax left New York in the 1940's, while still young -having graduated from Columbia and written for the New Yorker for a while- and moved to Patmos, one of the Greek islands, where he lived the rest of his life in a manner reminiscent of the Fathers of the Desert during the twelfth century. So, a poet who by virtue of his "profession" already limited his chances at real fame, further disappeared into the proverbial literary woodwork, by choosing the life of a medieval saint.

Now, having established some general biographical data, let us talk about the poet and his poetry and, more specifically about this particular book. There are two aspects of Lax's writing which are important to know, one is his economy of expression-which many have described as a "minimalism" yet I avoid for the potential assumptions about his belonging to a "school" of writing rather than having make some personal choices about how to say what he wanted to say.

When it comes to Robert Lax less is not only "more", it is actually greater, deeper, a form of communion with the reader who's invited to imagine each poem along with the writer. These poems are born of a certain appreciation for the reader's intelligence and sensitivity, refusing to serve the "liquid diet" of much of contemporary over-explained poetry. With Lax, you need to work ... no, more precisely yet, you need to attend, be present, be available to the magical evocation of language.

This becomes eminently apparent particularly in the included selections from his Greek Journal. in these texts Lax goes about being deeply interested in noticing whatever he notices -not unlike a Zen Buddhist sage- looking for the poems he would see, find first in life itself, rather than as constructs in his mind. More the telling of his small epiphanies, than self-important statements from a saint "wannabe:"

"the woman who lives in the house at the bottom of the hill asked me
with a great warm smile how i was doing; i said fine, and that I was going
to work. good, she said, tapping her head, or something, to show that
the work I meant was intellectual.

which perhaps it is: it feels more, the way i do it, like adam naming
the plants & animals. looking & naming: not doing very much more."

Lax is a true spiritual man and, because of that, his poetry is the poetry of a spiritual man rather than "spiritual poetry." Although this may sound merely semantic there's a valuable distinction to be drawn from it, these poems are not necessarily about spiritual topics -the triumphs and defeats of being a faithful man, or the counsels of someone who's attained certain degree of enlightment over material pursuits- yet it is, very much so, about spiritual matters, the diary of a man earnestly pondering over what it is to live a meaningful life, a poetic existence.

Whether it is one of his "diary entries" or one of his poems about circus life -the circus-inspired poems being another prominent aspect of Lax's writing, many of which are included in this flawless collection- what comes across so powerfully is the careful observation of trapeze artists and horse riders perfecting their crafts and longing to touch their audience. The circus and its people are not a childhood memory nor a passing interest in a odd, social group, it is a faithful community of men and women, a form of ecumenical work:

Our dreams have tamed the lions,
have made pathways in the jungle,
peaceful lakes; they have built new
Edens ever-sweet and ever-changing
By day from town to town we carry
Eden in our tents and bring its won-
ders to the children who have lost
their dream at home.

Robert Lax was this kind of poet, his so-called "hermit life" was his attempt to live a life of observation, meditation and, in perhaps a not so obvious way, a life of communion with this world.
Tolstoi is quoted as saying that if you "paint your village" you could achieve universality in your work. In the case of Robert Lax, what he has so beautifully depicted when it comes to the circus, or noted so wisely about a small Greek island, has made him a timeless, devoted observer of the welcomed difficulties of becoming an honorable human being.

" to be 'enlightened' is not to shine; nor to bring
multitudes to the hill where one sits cross-legged,
to listen.

it is rather to know what one is doing (& even,
perhaps, to enjoy it.)"

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply lovely, March 11, 2001

By 

A. Hogan (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love Had a Compass: Journals and Poetry (Grove Press Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

Robert Lax,who died late last year back in his "home" of Olean,N.Y.,was a writer of spare,minimalist poetry and prose.Lauded by his comtempories{writers as diverse as Levertov,Kerouac,Maxwell and Thomas Merton considered him an absolutelt essential poet}He writes about the Large{the title piece, a reworking of the intoduction to the Gospel of John} to colors. He work is so spare that it becomes meditative. In the early 1960's Lax moved to the island of Patmos,and began life as a hermit. His speech{and poerty }became even more lean,essentially stripping away whatever he viewed as accretion.One poem written like a cascading waterfall, simply spells out colors. His greatest work, the circus of the sun, is reprinted here in part. Lax travelled with a canadian circus for awhile, and viewed the circus,metaphorically, as life. This volume is rounded out with some dairies he keopt in the mid 60's on the Greek Islands. I believe that generations to come will view him as one of the great poets of the century.For that he certainly was. An essential volume!