Tess Gallagher's stunning new poems of remembrance, mourning, and recovery following the death of her husband, Raymond Carver.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Tess Gallagher's poems in this collection chart the painful road of mourning, memory, and change following the death of her beloved husband, fiction writer Raymond Carver. From feelings of sharing death to memories of valentines they gave each other, and then in an upward arch through Zen imagery of cherry blossoms and curved bridges, Gallagher's poems come to no easy rest on the banks of a new life and new loves. But for all those who have experienced tragedy, the poems relate a common assurance that a crossing into survival can be reached.
From Publishers Weekly
Gallagher's ( Amplitude ) new collection is dedicated to her husband, Raymond Carver, who died of cancer in 1988. One cannot help being moved by the emotion that grounds the work, even if the poems sometimes affect us more because of what lies behind them than because of what shows through. Some focus on ordinary objects now invested both with the warmth of remembrance and the agony of grief ("Some gifts are sent / only to haunt"), while others recall moments of leave-taking, such as Carver planting a tree, knowing " 'Even this thing is going to outlive /me.' " The poem "Wake" ("We were dead / a little while together then, serene / and afloat on the strange broad canopy / of the abandoned world") is one of the most visceral. However, slackness is evident in "Sad Moments" ("we are fit for modulation and /whim, for cloves and lace, or / that dim creaturely train rushing past us") and bathos in "He Would Have" ("Any unexpected bounty adds him like seasoning / to the day"). Still, Gallagher's best poems powerfully evoke the ambiguous life of the survivor, who can say, "My love's early death has scraped away my future," yet go on charting a life that has become a "chaotic laboratory of broken approaches." Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An extraordinarily complex and daring book of elegies,
By A Customer
This review is from: Moon Crossing Bridge (Hardcover)
Gallagher, whose decade-long relationship with the great short story writer Raymond Carver ended with Carver's early death to cancer in 1987, has written a masterpiece. Largely underrecognized, Moon Crossing Bridge has yet to receive its full due as one of the most deeply thoughtful and passionate poetic works on the subject of loss to emerge in recent memory. Gallagher has allowed the language that rose from her grief to carry her into the mystery that constitutes the borderland between the dead and those left behind. Her words sway like the tough threads of a hammock strung between the two worlds, holding us aloft as we allow ourselves to risk belief in paradoxical truths: that in the poetic universe to which Gallagher holds fast, a loved one can be truly with us and truly not with us at once, and loss and horror and delight can coexist in a strange harmony. In Gallagher's extraordinary book, the dark basin of terrible loss is not only inhabited, it is rich in hues and textures and possibilities. Using images culled as much from her travels around the world with Carver as from her years spent both with and without him in the Pacific Northwest, with this volume Gallagher has given a rare gift to those of us with loss in our backgrounds. She has journeyed as a shaman does, to map that enduring human trek from overwhelming pathos to multidimensional, even joyful, insight -- with unfailing courage and honesty. One day Gallagher will be seen for the unparalleled talent she is. For now, we who read and do the work to understand her words can be among a privaleged group of fierce and well-rewarded fans.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poems certainly worthy of highest praise...,
By
This review is from: Moon Crossing Bridge (Paperback)
The passion and imagery contained in this book of highly personal poems astounds! I hope Ms. Gallagher's book will gain the recognition it deserves. To allow us to come so close to the poet seems to be a rarity in much of today's poetry. This incredible sharing will grab you and not let go. Our thanks to Ms. Gallagher . . .
5.0 out of 5 stars
simply beautiful,
By A Customer
This review is from: Moon Crossing Bridge (Hardcover)
WOW!!!!! what imagery, heart and beauty..Tess Gallagher's tributebook to her deceased husband Raymond Carver,is the words of a grieving angel.."Deaf Poem" is my favorite.moon over bridge will go down in history as one of the great book of poems dealing with love,lost and renewal again..and i couldnt help thinking after reading it,how truly blessed Mr Carver was to have a love like Tess in his life..and every man would be blessed to have a lady love them just a tenth as much as she did..and does..pick up this book!!!!!you wont regret it..
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