The Sawdust War: POEMS [Paperback]

Jim Barnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1991

Few poets in America today can write as solemnly and truthfully as Jim Barnes about the heritage of America, a heritage as wide as the continent itself. Jim Barnes's aesthetic is vivid throughout these poems. A high sense of loss pervades the book, but Barnes's strong-willed persona never regrets what has passed. Instead, the persona gains strength from it. What has come to be his signature in four earlier books of poetry and remains his mark in The Sawdust War is essentially where his art lies: a strong sense of loss, of redemption coming out of loss, of place both geographical and spiritual.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The calm in Barnes's ( The American Book of the Dead ) voice in these poems bespeaks weathering a significant share of life's vicissitudes while developing an acute appreciation for the myriad curiosities of existence. In "Soliloquy in My Forty-seventh Year" the poet takes stock of his journey through life and decides that he "shall not walk softly to atone, / nor in anger move my own, but shall . . . kiss the dust and touch the stone . . . and sing clear and swill / the late life come dumb into my trust." The passing of time and its veiling effect on the events of our lives is a central, often unspoken theme. In "Skipping" Barnes acknowledges that in our recollections "the faces come up wrong" and "the facts are a reconstruction of no consequence," yet in the process of living we acquire practical, aesthetic and emotional skills--like skipping stones--that, once mastered, "you never lose the knack of." These are beautiful memory pieces about growing up, traveling and being a poet, poems with lovely, concise imagery and philosophical asides that are insightful, unobtrusive and entirely true-to-life.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

25726350: Night, The Plain Of Jars, And Dying
Above Bellagio, Looking North To Varenna
After The Funeral
After The Great Plains
Around The Cow Pond
At A Crossing, Somewhere In Ulster
The Cabin On Nanny Ridge
Castello Di Vezio, Above Varenna
Crow White
Crow's Firesticks
Drinking 3.2 At Mountain Top Tavern
Driving Through Missouri
Elegies For John Berryman 1. Diving Off The Bridge
Elegies For John Berryman 2. Eulogy
Elegies For John Berryman 3. Looking For An Epitaph
Elegies For John Berryman 4. Last Dream Song. A Fragment
For Roland, Presumed Taken
Fourche Maline Bottoms
The Frati: Crypt, Chapel, Oboe
The Garden
Hogging Below The Gates At Wister Dam
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 1. May 1990, Tremezzo
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 10. Grand Marnier
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 11. Room With A View
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 12. Rowing Over Dead
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 13. Pub Hemingway
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 14. Varenna Ferry
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 15. La Maranese
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 16. Castle Keep
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 17. The Paying Stone
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 18. South Wind
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 19. Mafia Wedding
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 2. Francesca E Paolo
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 20. Regatta
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 3. Mule Track To Suira
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 4. To Loppia
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 5. In The Melzi Garden
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 6. San Martino
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 7. The Formal Garden
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 8. At The South Gate
In Another Country: Suite For Villa Serbelloni: 9. In Another Country
International Student Union Coffee Shop: Ramadan
Le Louvre
Legacy Of Bones
Looking For Le Bosquet, Oklahoma
Mali Chito
Military Burial, Summerfield Cemetery: A Late Eulogy
The Monks Of Villa Serbelloni
Near The Top
Night Flight
On Hearing The News That Hitler Was Dead
The Planting
The Poor Fox
Postcard To Alain-andre Jourdier From The Longhorn Bar In Ki
Postcard To Brian Bedard From Somewhere On The Illinois, Nea
Postcard To James Welch In Missoula
Postcard To Kaz From Somewhere South Of Allah
Postcard To Mark Theriac From Taos, Near Kit Carson's Grave
Postcard To Terence Moser In Exile
The Ranch, Wild Horse Canyon, 1943
Remembering Hiroshima And Propaganda
The Sawdust War
Shaving The Dead 1. Djuna
Shaving The Dead 2. High Fashion
Shaving The Dead 3. Mexcali Blues
Shaving The Dead 4. Or Death By Misadventure
Shaving The Dead 5. 666
Shaving The Dead 6. Doxology
Shaving The Dead 7. Pussycat
Shaving The Dead 8. More Advice To The Critics
Skipping
Snowbound At The Bar 2, Below Winding Stair Mountain, 1943
Soliloquy In My Forty-seventh Year
The Tower, 1945
Under The Tent
Vesperal
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923
Wolf Watch: Winding Stair Mountain, 1923 2. This Is Where I
Written During The Funeral Of Hirohito
You Know Who You Are: This Is For You, My Friend
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (December 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252062396
• ISBN-13: 978-0252062391
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,718,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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