Morning Poems [Paperback]

Robert Bly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 1998

"Morning Poems is a sensational collection — Robert Bly's best in many years. Inspired by the example of William Stafford, Bly decided to embark on the project of writing a daily poem: Every morning he would stay in bed until he had completed the day's work. These 'little adventures/In Morning longing,' as he calls them, address classic poetic subjects (childhood, the seasons, death and heaven) in a way that capitalizes fully on the pun in the book's title. These are morning poems, full of the delight and mystery of waking in a new day, and they also do their share of mourning, elegizing the deceases and capturing the 'moment of sorror before creation.' Some of the poems are dialogues where unconventional speakers include mice, maple trees, bundles of grain, the body, the 'oldest mind' and the soul. A particularly moving sequence involves Bly's imaginative transactions with a great and unlikely precursor, Wallace Stevens. The whole is a fascinating and original book from one of our most fascinating authors."
— David Lehman

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Robert Bly's Morning Poems is a window into the life of the mind, the poetic process, and the beautifully and poignantly prosaic way our lives pass as a series of (mostly) ordinary days. The poems are soft-spoken and unassuming, each written as a component of Bly's morning ritual. "A Week of Poems at Bennington," for example, includes meditations on such lofty subjects as "The Dog's Ears" and "What the Buttocks Think." At the same time, the poems often address weighty matters: aging, friendship, and death. It is one of Bly's poetic virtues that he is able to write about such subjects (following the example of William Stafford) with a delicate and unpretentious touch. Consider the homespun phrasing and deeply felt acceptance of life's twists and turns in "The Resemblance Between Your Life and a Dog": I never intended to have this life, believe me-- / it just happened. You know how dogs turn up / At a farm, and they wag but can't explain. / It's good if you can accept your life..."

From Library Journal

Aware that poetry can appeal to the child in us, poet (Meditations on the Insatiable Soul, LJ 10/15/94), social critic (The Sibling Society, LJ 7/96), and men's advocate (Iron John, LJ 4/1/92) Bly adopts the homely diction and personification of children's fiction to create a storybook world filled with wry humor and quirky, surreal leaps. Mice converse, oceans complain, and less-than-sage observations are delivered with a deadpan naivete: "Getting killed/ Happens during a war a lot to horses and people." Even titles?"Bad People," "Things To Think"?seem lifted from a first-grade primer. But behind the affected innocence lies a desire to subvert expectations by playing style against substance to spotlight and praise the role of surprise in our lives ("We bend our ankle and end up reading Gibbon"). Cloaked in the simplicity of folktales told around a campfire, Bly's allegories of aging, death, and loss forfeit their intrinsic terrors to the larger, absorptive patterns of myth. It's a risky strategy, one open to charges of coyness and condescension toward the reader; but when it works, the results are entertaining, poignant, and?like each new day?unpredictable.?Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (January 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060928735
• ISBN-13: 978-0060928735
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poems written before embracing the day, July 17, 1998

By 

Nathan Maharaj (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morning Poems (Hardcover)

The concept of this book (to write a poem before getting out of bed) bubbles as subtext under each stanza. There is slow contemplation and sleepy humour throughout; the thoughts of an old poet waking. Among my favourites were "The Russian" and "November". This was my first experience of Bly, but it will not be my last.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reading in a Boat, December 2, 2006

By 

Molly "Book Nerd NYC" (NEW YORK, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Morning Poems (Paperback)

Robert Bly was in Seattle as part of Seattle Arts & Lectures' 2006 Poetry Series. I decided it was time to read a book of his poems. I chose Bly's 1997 book Morning Poems because of the poem "Reading in a Boat". The book is broken up into six sections; each very different in style. And yet the poems as a whole focus on specific topics: growing old, death, and reflections of the years gone by.

Section IV, my favorite section, has eight poems in which Bly discusses his love of writing poetry and his joy of finding just the right word to use, "To nudge a poem along toward its beauty."

I wasn't really inspired by the other sections of Morning Poems. Many of the poems were too simplistic for my taste, such as the final poem in which he talks to a mouse about sleeping positions. Others relied too heavily on religious references such as "Making Smoke," which is basically a modern version of Jonah and the whale.

Still, there are enough beautiful lines in this collection that make it worth reading; "The joy of being alone, eating the honey of words."

5.0 out of 5 stars Love these poems, April 20, 2011

By 

Mary (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morning Poems (Kindle Edition)

First book I've read by Robert Bly. Found myself loving many of the poems. They're succinct and clever. Each pulls an emotional string, which I love. Looking for my next book today.