Customer Reviews

Of This World: New and Selected Poems

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I go back to read again my favorite poems of Joseph Stroud for the same reason I return to places in this wide world that inspire me and make me feel at home with my soul. I don't tire of these poems and they always read fresh in the moment. But the great achievment in Stroud's work is that it hits you smack in the heart on the very first reading. You get the oh wow, the ahhhh, the yes! He manages to be wise without being obscure, to be understandable without being simple. I am not alone in thinking that Joseph Stroud is among the best, if not the best, poet in America today. Poetry critics rightly appreciate Of This World; I recommend it to seekers of truth who don't think they like poetry.

This is a big collection of Joseph Stroud's amazing work, but never too much. I read awhile, then sigh, and put it down, and ponder. The poems in this collection are almost always accessible, touching, human. Almost never ponderous or pedantic. It's a book to live with through the years.