Customer Reviews

The Wild Braid: A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Dinitia Smith interviewed Stanley Kunitz and Genine Lentine about this book. Her article appears in the NY Times Book- Review. In this article Kunitz speaks about the making of the book, about poetry, about gardening. The most moving part of the interview was a poem which he read to Smith, a poem written for his wife who died two years ago at the age of ninety- three.
He read the poem to Smith, and she comments in the middle.

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love.

He came to the poem's haunting conclusion:

Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.

I was moved by the poem.
It is also moving to think of someone reaching one - hundred years of age, and still writing poetry.

Kunitz says that he understands the necessity of death as the world would become just ' old wrecks' were everyone to go on without end.
He speaks as Borges does of wanting to become 'language' or ' part of the language'.
Aside from the poetry I believe many people will want to possess this book simply because it in some way represents a triumph of the human spirit and will.
"We who are so young, have neither seen so much, nor lived so long."

Stanley Kunitz is one hundred years old this year and, if that it's not enough reason to rejoice, he's also published a book, thoughtfuy aided by Genine Lentine, in which he shares his two loves, gardening and writing poetry. And if I name these two passions of Kunitz's in such order is because the garden is at the center of his thought here.
Accompanied by interesting photographs -some are remarkable portraits of Stanley- Kunitz words tell the story of his legendary Provincetown garden, and in the process he offers those lessons to his poetic insight.
The result is a brief book of love for craft, in this case what caring after trees teaches you and what writing a poem entails and demands from his maker.
I'm honored and elated to be reading some new words from such wise elder of the poetic word.

I was back "home" with my folks this weekend and my dad really has been enjoying this book (shipped to him for Father's Day)as well. Mr. Kunitz reflections on his amazing life experience are outstanding. I fell in love with the book as well. Definitely give it 5 stars. Enjoy :)

This is one of the best commentaries on the poetic life I know. And, it is an inspired guide book for "how" to become an elder and "how" to perform in so-called old age. Poetry awaits those who greet aging and death with Stanley Kunitz's health and wisdom.

One recent Sunday afternoon Barbara and I were astounded to hear this gravelly, raspy-voiced old Author-Poet-Rabbi, speaking with John Hockenberry! On NPR's "Infinite Mind" he recited: "When I look behind /as I'm compelled to look /before I can gather my strength /to proceed on my journey /I see milestones dwindling toward the horizon...." Afterwards, he added such unforgettable words as: "How shall the heart be reconciled to its feast of losses?" Hearing those lines I arrived at an awesome Point-in-Time, where I still hear his opening lines of "The Layers."

"I have walked through many lives, /some of them my own, /and I am not who I was..."

From some deeply mystical, inward urging, I identified my recent personal milestone, of reaching seventy-five years! "One Prophet-Poet, who sounds like a Wisdom/Rabbi...reminds me to get writing my oft' postponed autobiographical Reflections!

Only after repeating these opening lines of "The Layers" to some dear friends, did I muster-up the courage to begin writing and reflecting upon my autobiograpic repetion of challenging events from my third-grade school years into my Senior year of ORHS, to marriage and birth of two daughers, etc.

Hooray, for this challenging, Infinte mind-boggeling, divinely inspired Author-Prophet-Poet, Stanley Kunitz. Loving God, May his Tribe increase along with these other inspired reviewers! From an older, Retired Chaplain Fred W Hood

I WAS SO ENTRANCED BY THE POETRY AND REVERIES IN A GARDEN BY THE ONE AND ONLY STANLEY KUNITZ. THIS BOOK IS NOT ONLY FOR LOVERS OF POETRY BUT ALSO FOR LOVERS OF TRANQUILITY AND BEAUTY. I URGE YOU TO STEP INTO THIS NATURAL WORLD OF DAYDREAMS PUNCTUATED BY FLOWERS.

This book by Stanley Kunitz and his collaborator is a powerful testament to the power of the garden. In short antedotes and blazing poetry this book kept me riveted. In a quiet voice it proclaims the life of one man and his love of gardening.

There are so many aspects of this wonderful book to comment on. The photos of Stanley in his garden celebrate the beauty of his garden and of living life to the fullest in old age. My favorite is a picture of Stanley's gnarled hands behind his back with dirt on the tips of his fingers.

I am new to Kunitz's poetry so the poems sprinkled throughout the book were wonderful to read. More than the poems though, I was fascinated by his thoughts about the process of writing poetry and what constitutes a meaningful poem.

"Almost anything you do in the garden, for example weeding, is an effort to create some sort of order out of nature's tendency to run wild. There has to be a certain degree of domestication in a garden. The danger is that you can so tame your garden that it becomes a THING. It bcomes landscaping.

In a poem, the danger is obvious; there is natural idiom and then there is domesticated language. The difference is apparent immediately when you sense everything has been subjugated, that the poet has tamed the language and the thought process that flows into a poem until it maintains a principle of order but nothing remains to give the poem its tang, its liberty, its force. Once the poem starts flowing, the poet must not try to dictate every syllable."

Thanks to my dear friend who recommended this wonderful book.

Stanley Kunitz loves gardening and poetry. Perhaps that's why he's been able to live to be a hundred years old. With these he can combine the serenity of the garden and the realization that you are planting something that will provide a future pleasure, with the poetry he gets to express his feeling better than simple prose can do.

This book contains a series of, well, I guess you'd call them essays, reflecting on a century of gardening, of poetry, of life. These were distilled from a series of converstions between Mr. Kunitz and Ms. Lentine. They have never been previously published.

The poetry, the essays, show a vibrant man, comfortable and serene in his view of the world. This is a beautiful book about a beautiful man.

Stanley Kunitz's slim volume, written shortly before his death at age 100 last May, is destined to become a treasured volume for writers, gardeners, nature-lovers and anyone who seeks to live fully. The poems and photos woven throughout are as gorgeous as the text, which contains inspirational (I hesitate to use this overused word in relation to such an extraordinary context) and instructional lessons on living to the fullest, even as life winds down like the garden in winter. Kunitz is a quiet hero for embracing life in all its complexity and wildness, and this book is one to return to over and over for pleasure, comfort and discovery.