Original Fire: Selected and New Poems (Hardcover)

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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.

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (September 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066209862
• ISBN-13: 978-0066209869
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,381,832 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

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!!

5 of 10 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 (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.