Stephen Dunn Books

This is poetry, prose, philosophy. These paired prose poems offer the reader a place to think and to feel. You get the best of what poetry and prose can do. All of them repay a second read. That rare kind of writer who goes deep but remains accessible. Excellent.

Stephen has been metamorphizing before our eyes. 'What is this? What is this?' we ask, and the answers, in his best moments, are never going to be simple. He is too good to us to allow us what we believe to be simplicity (and we may even be right about it). This book undulates in pairs that entertain with no boorish party manners. I laugh harder at the more serious mutterings, and I always feel the urge to sing. Excellent well, Stephen...excellent well.

These prose pairs are surprisingly musical, counterpointing the rhythms of English prose (see Syntax and Mimesis) and the tighter, more angular rhythms of poetry. The poems are as multifaceted as diamonds and strike sparks as they play off each other and their own titles. They open in and out, in very direction. The voice is fluid, supple, and seductive. It's an illuminating and powerfully moving book.

While certainly better than the majority of pseudo-philosophical goop that passes itself off as poetry (or even worse--"prose poetry"), Riffs and Reciprocities was a disappointment, especially given the heights Dunn is capable of reaching in his work. We have to admire Dunn for attempting new styles/directions in his work and for not just recycling the most reader-friendly version of himself for his audience (as Billy Collins and Stephen Dobyns have, unfortunately, done with their latest efforts). But these prose pieces never aspire to much more than passing ruminations, and, at times, they come dangerously close to imitating "Deep Thoughts" by Jack Handy. Stick with Landscape at the End of the Century if you want to read Dunn at his finest. His poem "On the Death of a Colleague" is better than anything in his last two books.

Dunn well deserved the Pulitzer. His body of work is impressive and while this voulme is good, it is not one of best but still a joy. He ruminates on life from the perspective of age, "A Small Part"(many summers later I'd learn to love/the shadows illumination creates/but experience always occurs too late/to undo what's been done). And he imparts the wisdom of having seen a lot over a very long time in "Critics" ("Their job is sometimes to winnow/and omit.Yours is to go on...your job is to show up,continue on.") For first timers, try"Bewteen Angels" or "Local Visitations."

Still enjoying the book...have read the first half of the book in one sitting and the mundaneness of life (having to go to work) has forced me to delay reading the rest...

ANyone who can write like this ...is a genius!

EMPTINESS

I've learned mine can't be filled,
only alchemized. Many times
it's become a paragraph or a page.
But usually I've hidden it,
not knowing until too late
how enormous it grows in its dark.

...

Over time, Stephen Dunn has dared to tackle the intangible as well as the concrete. This is in addition to the multitudinous sides of human existence he has always explored. Dunn does not reveal what we want to know about ourselves, but what we need to know. Just like in _Riffs & Reciprocities_, where opposites found similarities and agreement and common bonds within each other, so do the explorations of this fine poet in this collection touch upon not only the light and dark, but the softly illuminated as well. From taking on the challenge of explicating the adulterer to the point of empathy and maybe unwilling agreement with the reader, to the wisdom of self that comes through the revealing of dark family secrets, Dunn rubs the tarnish off of hidden heirlooms that may still never make their way out to the mantle to be proudly displayed, but will make themselves a little more relevant to your daily chores. Dunn is someone to read a little more of every morning to make help make your day a little more meaningful.

Stephen Dunn is a wonderful contemporary poet. His poems are witty, sublime and sometimes humorous. This is a quick read, but a also a must read.

I have recently read the book Loosestrife: Poems, and i highlyrecommend it. Stephen Dunn has magnificently described Purpleloosestrife and it's threat to our society! Please read this book andstop the spread of purple loosestrife! These poems are an inspiration to everyone! I recommend that everyone read this book! THANK YOU Stephen Dunn!

This is one of the better offerings from one of the better postmodern poets. Dunn, an academic, is amazingly proficient at avoiding the talkativeness of the academy poets, and he seems able to finish a poem without forcing it, a real treat. "Tuscon" involves a variation of evil encountered in a redneck bar, and is effective, and ditto for "Wild," set in Spain during what I would assume was the poet's youthful, "hippie" interlude. I especially enjoyed "Grace," a poem concerning the 1993 Phillies, in particular pitcher Terry Mulholland's willingness to forgive Mitch Williams for his unpardonable sin. Best of all, however, is the title piece ("Loosestrife") which concludes the book. From the vantage of his rural South Jersey home,Dunn reflects on Nature, on impending political change in Washington (circa 1994),and the changing seasons."The impatient, upstart crocuses/ and daffodils fell once again/ for the lies of March./They simply wanted to exist. The warm sun must have said Now, /and they gave themselves/ to that first, hardly refusable touch." Thanks to Dunn, and to the likes of Gluck (The Wild Iris)and Dobyns(Cemetery Nights), well written poetry, enjoyable poetry, poetry capable of exploring the mortal, the sinister, and the tragic, appears to be making a comeback.

Very good, though really designed for a couple who already has a dog and is adding the baby. I was hoping to learn about having a baby and then getting the dog.

Very good, though really designed for a couple who already has a dog and is adding the baby. I was hoping to learn about having a baby and then getting the dog.

Your Baby and Bowser is a non-disciplinarian guide to avoiding potential problems between your dog and your child or grandchild. Small children tend to bring out the best and the worst of dogs. Children may unknowing startle a sleeping or eating dog. Caught unaware, even the best trained dog might react by growling or biting. The crying and flailing of infants may resemble prey behaviours or behaviours of a sick pup. In these cases, the dog may feel the need to stalk or play with the prey. Alternately, the animal may try to comfort the child or drag it to safety. Since dogs use their teeth to undertake these tasks, risk of injury is possible.

The author states that there are several important keys to avoiding potential accidents caused by natural dog behaviours such as chewing, biting, jumping, scratching, and stalking. One of these important keys is good training and proper dog handling. Another important key is socializing preparation before your child actually comes home. By far, however, it is important that your dog and child never be left alone together.

Your Baby and Bowser is an extremely well written, organized guide. This book details potential issues that can potentially occur between children and dogs. Furthermore, the author explains how many of these disasters are simply due to natural dog behaviours. Thus, such incidents are not normally the result of a premeditated, vicious attack by a bad dog. Moreover, the author explains how the dog owner can not only understand and identify these potential behaviours but also use this newfound knowledge to protect both the dog and the child. This book even contains details easy to use step by step training and includes various intuitive problem solving techniques.

the content is good, easy to read. i liked the fact that it's a paperback, easy to carry, and somewhat light but i found the wirebinding to keep snagging on different things in my bag. overall, a good resource to have.

Dunn's incisive, gorgeous gifts for entering the uncertain landscapes of living have never felt laid so bare as they do in "Insistence of Beauty" or so very fearless. From poems that explore Achilles exposing his heels for the cause of love, or results of the `grudges' endemic to the human condition, or whether certain stories become ours to tell if they come to us through our beloved, to poems amazed that love seems to have a life all its own - how we carry on with the weight and loveliness of it, in spite of circumstance. There is nothing predictable about this book. The speakers of the poems seem as astonished and even as bewildered as any of us that life and beauty insist past what we believe cannot or should not be endured. That we become more and less than we ever thought possible. In a previous collection, Dunn's poem "Walking the Marshland" finishes "Praise refuge I thought, praise whatever you can." Rescue dogs and their handlers, feeling the full measures of awkwardness and self-interest beside grace and the pain of another, all of this is reason for praise - no matter how unsettling it all seems.

S.Dunn's world seems to have shrunk to the size of a walnut since he won the Pulitzer Prize. The poems in this new collection lack oxygen. They are without energy, without spark. Even thinking about the 9/11 tragedy fails to energize Dunn's self-absorbing mumblings.

The old saying is true: "A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package."

Different Hours, Dunn's Pulitzer Prize winning collection has been a staple on my bookshelf since it came out. Since then, I've hunted down most of his collections and love his work dearly, so I was very excited for this new colleciton to come out. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. His clear and simple language remains, but if fails to conjure up the same kind of emotional breadth that his previous work successfully does. I think that part of the problem may lie in the subject matter. Much of the poetry is more self-contained and more self-reflective than his previous work, and this in itself is not a terrible thing, but if the relationships or internal thought processes are not presented in an accessible manner, then any emotional intensity and beauty may be lost. Although this review may be overly harsh, the collection is still head and shoulders better than most of the terrible poetry being published today. It is, unfortunately, not the best that Mr. Dunn has produced. I am eagerly awaiting his next work.

Being an admirer of Stephen Dunn's simple, potent work, I am surprised to see his name associated with this collection. Though the author manages to occasionally produce some interesting wordcraft, her work is mired in the pretentions that plague academic poetry, relying too heavily on references to classical works and mythology instead of more human elements. In addition, many of her works are too abstract, in my opinion, to really involve the reader. In summation, this collection is not one I'd consider a necessary or worthwhile addition to one's bookshelf.

In her poetry, Crystal Bacon seeks to invoke feelings with word clad imagery that evokes a compelling authority by way of mind inspired, mythos influenced, thoughtfully emotional reader response. Hinged: In the sea-dark bed my hands find your flesh/fluid, oceanic--manatee?--and/the scar from sternum to pelvis, the place/where you are joined to you: where the selkie/might hide the other skin that's tucked inside./Or if you are the root of me, the seed's/pod meets itself there. But you're no hydra,/no mermaid, your liquid spine hooked side to/side to ribs rearranged since that impact/of steel on steel that spun you out, that dropped/you here where you have healed. And now we wake/in this simplicity of touch to find/our love is hinged to your survival.

There already exists a plethora of Jesus traditions - who wants the same to happen to the Holy Spirit? These authors do.

The authors combined view supposedly represents the best in modern biblical scholars. What is apparent is the absence of the Christ of the Bible and the Holy Spirit of the Gospel. This is indeed proof that unbelief is in the professor's chair. Some of these essays show their shocking lack of belief in the inspiration and divine origin of the Bible, God. It is clear that this stream of theology is gaining support. Yet a faith based on destructing and condescending the biblical author's, has not won the respect of the true biblical Christian. May the Holy Spirit continue to move in their combined lives, and by God's grace, may they individually come to appreciate the exclusive claims of Christ.

'The human spirit slants its perspectives in a manner that does violence to the truth of revelation, while its very formulations are at the same time made possible because reason is a divine gift whose legitimate and proper use man has compromised.' Carl F H Henry, God, Revelation & Authority, Book 1 pg 91