ClimbingSky

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POETRY REVIEWS

  • POETRY BOOK REVIEW: 1855 Edition of Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

    If I were ever to teach a class to aspiring American poets, I would have one required text: the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. Hemingway famously wrote in The Green Hills of Africa that all modern American fiction comes from one book, Huckleberry Finn. A similar thing can be said for Walt Whitman and the 1855 edition of Leaves Read more

  • POETRY REVIEW: “Eagle Poem” by Joy Harjo

    Joy Harjo (b. 1951) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor. Her poetry is generally characterized by: Here is one of my favorite Harjo poems, “Eagle Poem.” Enjoy! EAGLE POEM by Joy HarjoTo pray you open your Read more

  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT FRIDAY: Umberto Eco on Poetry

    Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings. -Umberto Eco Read more

  • THROWBACK THURSDAY: “A Walk” by Ranier Maria Rilke

    Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on January 1, 2011. On another snowy Minnesota morning, this poem by Rilke comes to mind as we “walk” into another new year. In my early 20s, Rilke was a favorite poet. In the many moves I Read more

  • POETRY BOOK REVIEW: Chief Joseph of the Nez Pearce by Robert Penn Warren

    “A strange land we wandered to eastern horizonsWhere blueness of mountains swam in their blue–In blue beyond name.” Robert Penn Warren is probably remembered more today as a novelist than as a poet. While it is true that he did win the Pulitzer Prize in 1946 for his famous novel All the King’s Men, he actually Read more

  • POETRY REVIEW: “Little Exercise” by Elizabeth Bishop

    Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979) was born in Massachusetts but raised in Nova Scotia by her maternal grandmother. While she originally attended Vassar College with the intention of studying music to become a composer, she was reportedly terrified of performing and subsequently switched her major to English. Bishop is frequently described as a “poet’s poet.” Her work is characterized by Read more

  • POETRY REVIEW: “What Kind of Times are These” by Adrienne Rich

    Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) was an American poet, feminist, and lesbian activist. Her early poetry, which was greatly admired by W.H. Auden, was quite formal. However, as she struggled with the repressiveness of the 1950s and patriarchal society, she broke away from formalism to free verse. She is one of the few poets I can think Read more

  • POETRY REVIEW: “For What Binds Us” by Jane Hirshfield

    Jane Hirshfield was born in 1953 in New York City. She is an ordained lay Zen Buddhist and a well-regarded translator; she is also one of my favorite contemporary poets. I have heard Hirshfield described as the poet of “presence.” Her work is often described as a bridge between the Western lyrical tradition and the meditative depth Read more

  • FOOD FOR THOUGHT FRIDAY: Lucille Clifton on Poetry

    Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language. -Lucille Clifton Read more

  • POETRY BOOK REVIEW: Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes

    At first blush, the marriage between Ovid, that most Latin of poets, and Ted Hughes would seem as unlikely a match as any you could imagine. Not in ability, of course, but in language and temperament. Hughes as a poet has always seemed to me one of the most earthy, physical, and Anglo-Saxon of all Read more