Original Fire: Selected and New Poems [Paperback]

Louise Erdrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 2004

In this important new collection, her first in fourteen years, award-winning author Louise Erdrich has selected poems from her two previous books of poetry, Jacklight and Baptism of Desire, and has added nineteen new poems to compose Original Fire.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though a multiply award-winning novelist, Erdrich (Love Medicine, etc.) throughout the 1980s remained committed to verse; poems from Jacklight (1984) and Baptism of Desire (1989) represent her in many anthologies, some of them focused on Ojibwe heritage. This third book of poems begins with Erdrich's earliest work (much of it indebted to Richard Hugo), moves through a series of prose tales about the long-lived potato-trickster Potchikoo, then opens out into a mix of new and old verse. "All graves are pregnant with our nearest kin," Erdrich writes, and many of her poems regard first and last things-motherhood, family, death and mourning-sometimes as mythical universals, sometimes as they take place on reservations or in cold, forlorn small towns, each with its misfit (like "Step-and-a-Half Waleski") and its patron saint (the sarcastic "Rez Litany," the rapt "Seven Sleepers"). "The relentless throat call/ of physical love," and religions designed to deflect it, animate some of Erdrich's new sequences, which incorporate fairy tales, Christian ritual and reservation lore. Though her stark lines owe much (sometimes too much) to Louise Glck, Erdrich's particular landscapes and affiliations, and her way with myths and talismans, ensure that her poems, new and old, retain strengths all their own.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Erdrich's fecund poems are seedbeds for her acclaimed novels, a key facet of her work newly revealed in this soul-rocking collection, her first volume of poetry in 14 years. An irrepressible storyteller, Erdrich writes supple and cunning narrative poems about families, lovers, and trickster figures as mischievous in the afterlife as they were in the flesh. Both body and spirit fascinate Erdrich because they are born of and sustained by the life force she calls the "original fire." Reflecting on her Ojibwa and European heritages, Erdrich is profoundly sensual, frankly bawdy, and slyly comedic. Deeply attuned to the sacred as it is manifest in everything from sunlight to stones to water to plants and animals, Erdrich grapples with both Native American and Christian beliefs, and the conflicts ignited by the friction between them, in poems of sweet gratitude, voluptuous ecstasy, cutting satire, seething grief, and fiery resolve. "I'm wild for everything," writes Erdrich, a poet who is, indeed, open to and inspirited by the radiance and heat, crackle and insistence of life. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (August 17, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060935340
• ISBN-13: 978-0060935344
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #336,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Louise Erdrich is the author of twelve novels as well as volumes of poetry, children's books, and a memoir of early motherhood. Her debut novel, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent novel, The Plague of Doves, a New York Times bestseller, received the highest praise from Philip Roth, who wrote, "Louise Erdrich's imaginative freedom has reached its zenith--The Plague of Doves is her dazzling masterpiece." Louise Erdrich lives in Minnesota with her daughters and is the owner of Birchbark Books, a small independent bookstore.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magnificent, Soul-Stirring Poetry, January 21, 2005

By 

Marion "[e-mail]" (Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Original Fire: Selected and New Poems (Hardcover)

I've read and enjoyed all of Erdrich's fiction and was eager to experience her poetry when I got this book. I was not disappointed in the least.

Her poems are rich, full of life, sparkling chunks of wisdom from a woman's life. My favorite poem was "Advice to Myself" in the chapter entitled "Original Fire". She captures the ephemeral nature of life so beautifully and eloquently. If you only purchase one book of poetry this year, make it this one!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Poetry; Great Story Telling, June 3, 2010

By 

John Michael Albert "John-Michael Albert" (Portsmouth NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Original Fire: Selected and New Poems (Paperback)

Is it heresy to suggest that Louise Erdrich is a great story teller, in at least two ancient traditions (Native American, Roman Catholic liturgy), and not necessarily a poet? I became aware of her poetical work on Bill Moyers's last shows a month or so ago. They had an intense, engrossing, and very hopeful discussion centered on her poem, "Advice to Myself." I was amazed at the balance, the sanity of the conversation. Essentially: yes, we know the world at large and in particular is going to hell in a hand basket and the most anyone can do, world-wise, is to push back on the flood of insanity. But, the most powerful and personal thing we can do is to refuse to surrender to despair. The strength of character in these stories grows for that amazing place. True to both traditions, they're doggedly NOT about the teller, they're about the tale. Beautiful, evocative writing. And what happens when she converts the Desiderata from second person advice to first person? "Advice to Myself": ... Let the wind have its way, then the earth / that invades as dust and then the dead / foaming up in gray rolls under the couch. / Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome. ... And regarding the heresy? In Huckleberry Finn's immortal words, "I'll go to hell."

5 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Erdrich's third volume of poetry, October 27, 2003

By 

Joe Sherry (Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Original Fire: Selected and New Poems (Hardcover)

Original Fire is Louise Erdrich's third volume of poetry to be published. She is best known as an award winning novelist (Love Medicine, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse), but is also an accomplished poet. This collection is not a completely original volume, however. It takes quite a few poems from her previous two volumes (Jacklight, Baptism of Desire) as well as some poems that have never before been published.

I'm not a huge fan of poetry, but since Louise Erdrich is my favorite author I'm willing to read the book. I enjoyed the poetry, but it didn't inspire me or speak to me or any of the other things that poetry is supposed to do. The best section of the book was the prose poems from Jacklight (I believe). The stories were interesting, funny, and made me want to keep reading. I'm not as knowledgeable about poetry as I am about other forms of literature, so I find it difficult to say it is good or bad poetry, but I would suggest that it is good. I enjoyed reading this collection, but I do feel that it is a less work compared to her novels.