Passing Through Customs: New and Selected Poems [Paperback]

Gibbons Ruark (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

You would have to sift through the life's work of a great many poets to find another hundred pages nearly so fine as these.

                         --X. J. Kennedy

--jacket copy

Gibbons Ruark's whole book has a calm, steady completeness that is extremely rare. -- Henry Taylor in The Washington Times, September 5, 1999

Ruark handles language with the skill of a patient craftsman, achieving a vision of unparalleled clarity and grace. -- Gettysburg Review, Summer 2000

Ruark's poems are polished by the combined force of his feeling and craft until they are solid as stone. -- Portland Oregonian, August 29, 1999

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807123625
• ISBN-13: 978-0807123621
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,683,483 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gibbons Ruark was born in North Carolina in 1941, grew up in various Methodist parsonages in the eastern part of the state, was educated in its public schools and holds degrees from the Universities of North Carolina and Massachusetts.
His poems have been published widely for over forty years in a variety of magazines and anthologies and individual collections. He is the recipient of residencies at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, three NEA Poetry Fellowships, a Pushcart Prize and the Saxifrage Prize for Keeping Company. His most recent books are Staying Blue and Passing Through Customs: New and Selected Poems. New work can be seen in recent issues of The New Republic, The New Criterion, Shenandoah and Crazyhorse. Ruark has given public readings in at least half of the fifty states, the District of Columbia and the Republic of Ireland. Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Delaware, he lives with his wife Kay in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant Retrievals: Keeping Company with Ruark, April 14, 2000

By 

michael gills (arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Passing Through Customs: New and Selected Poems (Paperback)

So long since I've wept out loud--beautiful gifts, these. Gibbons Ruark reminds us every instant of what we miss, of how powerfully love revives, rescues the perishing. Passing Through Customs arrives in the knick of time. Such love, I thank the giver for his reach, for "the worn thumb" of these pages. Find this book; it will change your life.