ISBN: 9780813012834

"John Woods is a fine craftsman, with a large heart and just the right amount of bitterness. He is someone to listen to--carefully."--Gerald Stern "Shrewd, savage, tender, … More...

"John Woods is a fine craftsman, with a large heart and just the right amount of bitterness. He is someone to listen to--carefully."--Gerald Stern "Shrewd, savage, tender, unpredictable, and invariably original poems, a valuable asset to American poetry."--Daivd Wagoner "From now on, I think, I will have among my most valued pieces of mental furniture the senator with a face like an old newel post. John Woods's poems are wonderfully generous with such moments of unforeseen rightness; I treasure his work, and am always looking for more of it."--Henry Taylor John Woods has attracted a great many faithful readers over the years, chief among them his fellow poets who recognize his voice as one of the most interesting in American poetry. James Wright, who avoided public commentary on his peers, wrote that Woods is "one of the four or five absolutely unmistakable first-rate American poets now alive." Black Marigolds , Woods's fourteenth book of poems, adds to his reputation as a poet's poet, an original talent who plays the English language with the skill and inspiration of a virtuoso. As with his earlier work, these new poems are charged with wit, surprising metaphors, odd and captivating expressions, and piercing observations of human nature. The title of this book comes from the second section, a series of poems that record the vicissitudes of love. In them, the sinewy language and the cynical observer so familiar to his readers is melded with a directness, passion, and vulnerability that is new in Woods's poetry. "To Bihana," the poem that inspired the title of the volume, ends with this taut, stricken wish (spoken to another poet): "Your poem saved you, as I hope this will save me. / I hope your woman stood with you / when you were shaken. I hope you studied her face / as though you picked one rose / to die with." John Woods is professor emeritus of English at Western Michigan University. His books of poetry include The Valley of Minor Animals and The Salt Stone: Selected Poems , and he has published poetry in such journals as Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, Passages North , and New Virginia Review . Black Marigolds Woods, John, University Press of Florida<

ISBN: 9780813012834

"John Woods is a fine craftsman, with a large heart and just the right amount of bitterness. He is someone to listen to--carefully."--Gerald Stern "Shrewd, savage, tender, unpredictable, … More...

"John Woods is a fine craftsman, with a large heart and just the right amount of bitterness. He is someone to listen to--carefully."--Gerald Stern "Shrewd, savage, tender, unpredictable, and invariably original poems, a valuable asset to American poetry."--Daivd Wagoner "From now on, I think, I will have among my most valued pieces of mental furniture the senator with a face like an old newel post. John Woods's poems are wonderfully generous with such moments of unforeseen rightness; I treasure his work, and am always looking for more of it."--Henry Taylor John Woods has attracted a great many faithful readers over the years, chief among them his fellow poets who recognize his voice as one of the most interesting in American poetry. James Wright, who avoided public commentary on his peers, wrote that Woods is "one of the four or five absolutely unmistakable first-rate American poets now alive." Black Marigolds , Woods's fourteenth book of poems, adds to his reputation as a poet's poet, an original talent who plays the English language with the skill and inspiration of a virtuoso. As with his earlier work, these new poems are charged with wit, surprising metaphors, odd and captivating expressions, and piercing observations of human nature. The title of this book comes from the second section, a series of poems that record the vicissitudes of love. In them, the sinewy language and the cynical observer so familiar to his readers is melded with a directness, passion, and vulnerability that is new in Woods's poetry. "To Bihana," the poem that inspired the title of the volume, ends with this taut, stricken wish (spoken to another poet): "Your poem saved you, as I hope this will save me. / I hope your woman stood with you / when you were shaken. I hope you studied her face / as though you picked one rose / to die with." John Woods is professor emeritus of English at Western Michigan University. His books of poetry include The Valley of Minor Animals and The Salt Stone: Selected Poems , and he has published poetry in such journals as Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, Passages North , and New Virginia Review . Media >, [PU: University of Florida Press]<