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Offers poems written from the 1940s through the 1970s that reveal the development of the author's style. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

an innovator
Using simple phrases and a lot of white space, Robert Creeley is a innovator of modern verse that suffuses mystery into the mundune. He is straightforward, spare, uses very few metaphors. He is an absolute master of measure, using the sound of the words and the pauses in between to create beautiful, haunting verse. It is difficult to be cerebral while reading his work, the poetry never explains or describe but is made to be experienced as a bodily phenomenon. It engages a quieter, deeper more subtle appreciation challenging for a modern readership used to instant gratifications.

Robert Creeley will one your eyes
Out of all of my books it is the only one that for over 15 years I have read something from everyday.
I think the sign of a good book is one that you can open randomly and always be turned around by the words before you.

The Line Breaks
these poems and the silence surrounding them are uncanny. I know no other word for it. he makes ordinary statements sound interesting because of his uncanny phrasing and subtle line breaks. you can learn more about writing from an hour spent with creeley's work than with just about anyone else, except ashbery. ... Read more

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This new, compact Selected Poems offers for the first time a balanced survey of Robert Creeley's entire sixty years of poetic accomplishment. It showcases the works that made him one of the most beloved and significant writers of the past century while inviting a new recognition of his enduring commitments, fluency, and power. ... Read more

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precise, profound
So fresh in his language and perceptions, so consistently profound, and so charming -- like James Schuyler or Gary Snyder, Creeley feels genuinely present in his poems: to have this volume on your shelf is to have him in the room with you. More people should know the gentle and inspiring presence of this wonderful teacher and writer. "It's all moved inside, / all that dear world // in mind for forever, / as long as one walks / and talks here, / thinking of you."

Always new
Bob Creeley was perhaps the original beatnik, a quiet man who turned himself outward and in so doing made a great impression upon the world with his work and his persona. We should all know more about him -- his best poems (of his many fine ones) should be with us always.

A mast poet of moments otherwise unnoticed
Creeley won me over early, in junior high, when my teacher at the time handed a well thumbed book of Mr. Creeley's poetry. From the first page I was caught up in a wonderful tangled world of poems constructed from small moments of happy introspection - given a kind of sincere reverence by Mr. Creeley's intense scrutiny of what even a small moment can mean; a drunken dinner, a ride in a Cadillac, a slice of apple pie topped with ice cream - these moments becomes a minor religious awakening in the hands of Robert Creeley. He is by far my favorite poet, likely because my own small epiphanies are so much like those he writes of. ... Read more

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This definitive collection showcases thirty years of work by one of the most significant American poets of the twentieth century, bringing together verse that originally appeared in eight acclaimed books of poetry ranging from Hello: A Journal (1978) to Life & Death (1998) and If I were writing this (2003). Robert Creeley, who was involved with the publication of this volume before his death in 2005, helped define an emerging counter-tradition to the prevailing literary establishment--the new postwar poetry originating with Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofsky and expanding through the lives and works of Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, and others. The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1975-2005 will stand together with The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1975-2000 as essential reading for anyone interested in twentieth-century American poetry. ... Read more

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If youth asks the mirror, "Am I the fairest?" then age, in Robert Creeley's skillful, ironic, and tender voice asks, "Do you remember me?" And the poems of LIFE & DEATH are the mirror's answers--a collage of recollection and salvage, a gathering-in before winter's night. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The concise conversationalist
William Carlos Williams seems to me the poet closest to Creeley, or the one Creeley is closest to. Small lines of ordinary speech and life which occasionally come more alive and striking. Creeley it seems to me presents a kind of stream- of- consciousness of what he sees now. He is famous for his line- breaks and knowing how to stop the sound and sight in the right place. What he feels and believes about life and love is perhaps given in the fact that he was known as the most congenial conversationalist of poets, and also one most generous to others. He loved the word ' home' and wrote in his last years much about the process of 'aging' .

Er, well, good yes good
Quite like Creeley's/ older lines, but/ longer/ and more particular/ even in/ their ambiguity./ Now when/ he's not sure/ he's not/ so nervous./ Lovely really.

Actually I liked it./ Really like it./ Read it aloud/ over breakfast sometimes./ ... Read more

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This edition represents the third year of correspondence between Creely and Olson; Creely is now roaming around the Mediterranean with his young family, and Olson is mentor at Black Mountain and writer in Washington. The letters reveal the intensity with which the two poets expressed themselves.Amazon.com Review
Whenever I become intrigued by a writer, I tend to readeverything I can get my hands on that he or she has written --including their letters.Correspondence presents the uniqueopportunity to become closer to your writer. The guard is down, thelanguage is conversational, the ideas fly by fresh and uncrafted bymonths of revisions. This collection of letters between two of thefamous Black Mountain poets bares their souls in everything fromwriter's block to religions to saving each other's lives through thenear-forgotten art of written correspondence. ... Read more

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To speak the poetry and in the writing live it
This is the book which first put Creeley on the poetic map in a large way. It collects poems from three other previously published books. The title poem is the most well- known and perhaps the best known poem Creeley was to write.
Creeley in later years became much appreciated for his ability to encourage younger poets.
As a young poet he turned to William Carlos Williams for direction. And there is something similar in their writing especially the love of shorter poems, the connection with everyday speech, incident and life.
Creeley said he was not the person of great causes but that what he cared about was people, not in the abstract, but in specific and particular relationships. He had many friends who were poets, and his great friend and mentor Elder Olsen was with him in the founding of 'Black Mountain College'.
Creeley said of his own poetry that he wrote it in batches of six or seven poems, in a quiet place, and that he did not revise. His writing was connected intimately with speaking, and also with listening and improvising. There is a connection with jazz music also.
I find his work has a sincerity, and that his voice is one which demands to be trusted. I do not find that he has great music, nor do I know the kinds of memorable lines I most love. But that is just me.
Here is a small part of the title poem of this collection.
It is an excerpt but it gives a true feeling of the kind of tentative, spoken , direct and often moving poetry he writes.



"Love, what do I think
to say. I cannot say it.
What have you become to ask,
what have I made you into,


companion, good company,
crossed legs with skirt, or
soft body under
the bones of the bed.


Nothing says anything
but that which it wishes
would come true, fears
what else might happen in


some other place, some
other time not this one.
A voice in my place, an
echo of that only in yours.


Let me stumble into
not the confession but
the obsession I begin with
now. For you


also (also)
some time beyond place, or
place beyond time, no
mind left to


say anything at all,
that face gone, now.
Into the company of love
it all returns."


... Read more

Product Description
Robert Creeley, one of the most significant American poets of the twentieth century, helped define an emerging counter-tradition to the prevailing literary establishment--a postwar poetry originating with Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofsky and expanding through the lives and works of Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, and others. When Robert Creeley died in March 2005, he was working on what was to be his final book of poetry. In addition to more than thirty new poems, many touching on the twin themes of memory and presence, this moving collection includes the text of the last paper Creeley gave--an essay exploring the late verse of Walt Whitman. Together, the essay and the poems are a retrospective on aging and the resilience of memory that includes tender elegies to old friends, the settling of old scores, and reflective poems on mortality and its influence on his craft. On Earth reminds us what has made Robert Creeley one of the most important and affectionately regarded poets of our time. ... Read more

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'To be human has growing old at its end'
Robert Creeley died last year, an event he expected and understood as well as any poet ever has.This collection of his last writings is a treasure to those of us who fell under his inspiring and straightforward spell of writing: it is an apt epitaph to a man whose poems caressed the human condition and accepted death as a final stanza to life.

Creeley embraced Buddhism in its vision of the panoply of existence.His works reflect his need to address aging as part of living, the importance of memory in the persistence of those departed: his poems have always included elegies to old friends that embody his perception of the life process.In 'For Ric, who Loved the World' he sighs 'The sounds/ of his particular/ music echoing,/ stay in the soft/ air months after/ all's gone to/ grass, to lengthening/ shadows, to slanting/ sun on shifting water,/ to the late light's edges/ through tall trees -/ despite the mind's/ still useless,/ ponderous thought.'

Included in this poignant volume is the text of an essay exploring the late verse of Walt Whitman. It is a fitting tribute to poets of the past and a warm tie to those for whom Robert Creeley was one of the truly affectionately respected poets of our country.Highly Recommended.Grady Harp, May 06 ... Read more

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Early in his career, Robert Creeley believed that his greatest contribution to literature would be in prose. Although he has since established himself as one of the most influential poets of the twentieth century, his remarkable body of prose work--instilled with a deep understanding of language and narrative form--remains an essential part of his oeuvre.

In addition to his first book of short stories THE GOLD DIGGERS, a novel THE ISLAND, a radio play LISTEN, and MABEL: A STORY, this omnibus edition includes two previously uncollected stories. ... Read more

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astounding
Only Butterick and Creely could have demonstrated the significance that Charles Olson imparted upon the world of post-modern poetry.For those familiar and unfamiliar with the works of this poet, this collection,although only a mere smattering of the magnitude of Olson, provides animposing insight to the depth and mastery of modern poetry. ... Read more

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A classic comparative study of poetry from Homer to the 20th century, reissued for today's readers. ... Read more

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Give It All The Stars In The Sky
Poor poetry. Either it smothers under tons of academic pretension, or it is retailed as pop entertainment in poetry slams. It seems sometimes that Robert Pinsky is the only one with a good handle on the popular appeal of this emotional/intellectual art. But I bet you Pinsky has this book and refers to it regularly. This is the most hard-headed, economical poetry criticism, completely free of cant and pretension; equally free of stylishness. Zukovsky gives us, as Donald Barthelme once wrote, "the red meat on the rug."The form of the book is disarmingly simple: Selected quotes, side by side, with the occasional footnote. Zukovsky lets you figure things out yourself, and when you refer to his notes, you are nearly always rewarded with the notion that you and he are at least on the same planet when it comes to deciding what is good and what is not so good about poetry. Some of the selections in Middle English or Scots dialect are tough going, but you soon discover that it is as much sound as meaning that is important. In any event, there are plentiful and helpful footnotes.If you're lucky, you've never read any poetry criticism and can leap into this book unbiased and unafraid. If (like your reviewer) you had to read a lot of it in college, you'll feel positively liberated. ... Read more

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The illustrated history of a celebrated poet's lifelong relationship with artists. Through essays, chronological narratives, and interviews with the participants, this book explores the intersection of contemporary poetry and contemporary art in the U.S. The accompanying CD-ROM makes it possible for readers to turn the pages of the books and portfolios with a mouse click. In Company: Robert Creeley's Collaborations accompanies a traveling exhibition of the same name, organized by the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University. ... Read more

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"Robert Creeley has created a noble life body of poetry that extends the work of predecessors Pound, Williams, Zukofsky, and Olson and that provides like them a method for his successors in exploring our new American poetic consciousness."—Allen Ginsberg

If I were writing this was the last book of poems completed by Robert Creeley and published during his lifetime (New Directions, 2003). The words that he wrote to describe this book are oddly prophetic: "Age brings experience, not wisdom; age makes time actual—each day another—until there is no more. These poems have been my company, my solace, my feelings, my heart. When they cannot speak it will all be silence." Though Creeley died in 2005, his poems are not silent—they vibrantly continue to embrace life while acknowledging, with no self-pity, the inevitability of death. The message (as he always ended his letters) is "Onward!" ... Read more

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For nearly four decades, Robert Creeley has been a popular and often controversial force in American poetry and letters. His essays, written from the 1950s to the 1980s and collected here for the first time, show a poet deeply touched by and in touch with the concerns of his post-war generation. His spare prose illuminates many important literary and artistic figuresEzra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Louis Zukofsky, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Frank Stella, Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, John Chamberlain, and otherscapturing the essence of their distinctively American achievements. ... Read more