David Lehman Books

"...poetry speaks against an essential backdrop of silence. It is almost reluctant to speak at all, knowing that it can never fully name what is at the heart of its intentions. There is a prayerful, haunted silence between words, between phrases, between images, ideas and lines." ~ pg. 19

Used books hold within their pages additional mysteries and this one was no exception. Also, when the first poem in a book makes you cry, it is almost guaranteed you will be finding additional poems to love. "That Cold Summer" by Nin Andrews is so startling in imaginative beauty and many of the poems seem to flow together with a similar idea.

"Often as children, my friend and I used to pretend we had wings. Attaching towels to our backs with safety pins, we'd leap from sofas and chairs, thudding ungracefully on the floor ...But what is it these angels represent to us if no the ability to lift off the planet, to escape the pull of gravity? And this, I think, is one of the reasons I write." ~ Nin Andrews

The Butterfly Effect by Harry Humes presents ideas to ponder as does Karen Volkman's "Infernal" where she writes:

"The revenant sprawls by the pool
assessing opulent stucco and glossy indigo."

I love the way the poem ends:

"I stay close to the water,
you stay close to the shore."

I thought it was rather intriguing that when I had just read The Best American Poetry book edited by A.R. Ammons, that I should open this book and find a "Worldwide Travel Specialist's" business card right at his poem: "From Strip." While I wouldn't mind a vacation to New Zealand, I do find many of the poetry books by David Lehman to be journeys into many minds and enjoyable escapes into poetry.

"she was, like a piece of the sky looking at herself.
She watched him like a deer caught in the headlights, staring

until he touched her shoulder, and he shuddered.
Colder than snow, she was. Donald said that's why

he invited her in to warm herself. She had a long
wind inside her than fanned the flames a brilliant blue."

~ from Nin Andrew's "That Cold Summer"

~The Rebecca Review

This anthology represents the current standard aspiring writers must live up to. I look to this collection for a vivisection of the poetry "mood" prevelant in the past year. It is encouraging to find such a diversity of writers between the covers of one book. I especially applaud the inclusion of "new" writers such as Bob Hicok. He has been a local favorite in southeastern Michigan for the past couple of years, and I am delighted to see him receiving national attention. I highly recommend this volume of poetry.

Leave it to James Tate. The poems in this collection are witty, profound, whimsical, and memorable. There isn't one I wouldn't finish reading if I came across it in its original source.

Unlike some of the unpolished PC rants in Rich's collection, these are poems that truly matter because they reflect on what Faulkner called "the verities of the human heart." Unlike some of the fatally over-ambitious poems in Hollander's collection, these poems are less than epic length but more than haiku -- just right.

I'm mostly a library reader, but this is the one I might actually buy.

I have been reading this series since 1993 and I feel that this is one of the strongest ones in the series. Some good choices from the better known poets, and wonderful poems by poets I was unfamiliar with, including Thomas Sayers Ellis (whose "Atomic Bride" is sure to become a classic). Though the book may drift a little towards the middle in terms of taste, Tate does a good job of mixing different aesthetics into this volume. Also, I think Tate's introduction is the most memorable I've read from the series.

A canny introduction ushers the reader into this hybrid art form. The examples illuminate the form's history and variety. Most of the prose poems are superb; only a few disappoint. And readers previously unfamiliar with the genre (like myself) will likely be introduced to established but little-known writers of tremendous depth, beauty and originality, like Lyn Hejinian and Fanny Howe. I highly recommend this collection.

This is a great book, an American book, a prose book full of poems, a poetry book full of prose, an American book you can take to Paris, a book with a cover like none you've ever seen, a collage you can take to college. Yes, I dig it.

David Lehman's 'Great American Prose Poems' gives an interesting and insightful look into the world of the questionable - yet undeniably fascinating - genre of prose poetry. First providing the reader with an engaging introduction on the origins and essentials of prose poetry, Lehman proceeds to include a good basic range of authors. Gertrude Stein has a particularly impressive contribution, as do several others. This is a thought-provoking and highly recommended read for anyone interested in learning about the basics of prose poetry -- my only real annoyance was the absence of Leonard Cohen: while he is not American, he is Canadian, like several others featured in Lehman's collection, and (as an example) his work 'How to Speak Poetry' is utterly classic.

I've always enjoyed reading short stories, but over the years I've started to appreciate their form more than their plot-lines, and a careful and insightful use of language became something I increasingly valued. The first time I came across a prose poem, although I did not know it was called that at the time, was a translation of Czeslaw Milosz poem by Robert Pinsky. I was immediately fascinated by it, but I thought it was just something characteristic Milosz's style. Many years later I came across this book, and I was instantly drawn to it. I've read it and re-read it many times. It contains some of the best prose poems out there, and it helped me discover some new poets that I would have otherwise not known about. Based on that, I am adding new books to my Amazon wish list on a continuing basis. It's definitely worth buying and reading.

His books covers it all: history, stories, the idea of doubles and masks, the resolution of good and evil after World Wars through the detective who resolves to bring order out of chaos. David Lehman talks about the detective novel as one genre that crosses all classes. Given this election and all the open questions, let's delight in some sleuthing. We are asking Whowonit in America. His book is a Whodunit. This book is fun and includes many of David's Favorites throughout history, including Poe's Murder of the Rue Morgue and even spy novels such as LaCarre's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. If you delight in detective novels, you'll savor this read.

Finally in paperback, "The Perfect Murder" will provide intriguing delight for both newcomers and accomplished literary detectives. With this new twenty-first-century insight into the murder mystery, Lehman has now made the study of the Detective Novel as morally and historically important as any in literature today, "not only" in Lehman's words "because of the detective novel's debt to human nature but because of the possibly larger debt that human behavior owes to detective novels."

David Lehman investigates the development of mystery fiction, defining improvements and refinements, comparing auth
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ors, detectives, plots and techniques.

If, as he observes, the murder in the most inspired detective novel is perfect, it's not because of its solution but because of its artful conception. The first clue is in the basic premise of mystery fiction. Speaking, as it does, of such basic matters as life and death, quest and query, fear and the unknown, the detective novel assumes that the puzzles of life can and will be solved. The reader turns from the ordinariness of life to the author's promise that around each corner lurks the possibility of menace, that conspiracy fills the air, that we have every right to be paranoid, but in spite of it all, everything will turn out all right.

Another clue: Reading mystery fiction provides us with a harmless and vicarious way of releasing our homicidal instincts, says Lehman, allowing us to murder again and again without having to suffer the consequences. Thus, he concludes, reading mysteries leads us away from performing the act of murder.

"Our love of mystery is matched only by our longing for certainty," he writes. "and because we find it hard to tolerate the condition of doubt and guilt in shich we are destined to live."

Lehman's love of mysteries and his eagerness to share favorite books and characters lends charm and emphasizes his major points. A chronological bibliography is included and divided into related genres, critical documents and resource books. That proves to be a banquet of delicious additional reading on the subject. Another delight is his review of 15 of his favorite mystery novels.

Read this one to gain new insight and a deeper appreciation for the mystery genre.

I have a few of books on the crime/mystery genre. Some of them are overly academic (dry and professorial) while others are labors of love written by fans (passionate but not always insightful or even factually correct). Then there are those books that are still wonderful to read but are a bit out of date (the Haycroft, Keating and Symon books, for instance).

Lehman's book avoids all these pitfalls. He's a scholar but his prose moves along and is never fussy. He covers a lot of ground but never sails into vague generalities. And his recommended reading list (always a highlight in this sort of book) is nicely put together, with a good mix of old works and new.

If I had to buy a single volume for someone looking to expand his or her perspective on the history of the crime-mystery story, this would be the one.

A magnificent collection of poems -- each one a shiny little jewel! The world comes alive through date references, NYC locales, and the fertile imagination of David Lehman! Who do YOU see in the Daily Mirror?

I am not surprised that "The Daily Mirror" is fantastic. I have yet to meet a poem by David Lehman that I don't like.

That being said, I'm still deeply pleased by how much I like this book. These poems are so full of joie de vivre that every time I read one I find myself smiling.

The poems in "The Daily Mirror" are terrific in part because of their immediacy. As daily poems they comprise a kind of poetic journal; they are crafted out of the everyday. What's great is that they also transcend the mundane; they're made of ordinary stuff, but they're *poems*, with the heightened consciousness and precise language that poems require.

These poems are witty and intelligent and creative and funny and sad. I recommend them highly.

The Daily Mirror is David Lehman's writing at its finest. So many of the poems move as water falling and turning, fluid and full of surprise. His sense of the poetic line and his innovative use punctuation (almost none) blossom into moments that hold and propel the reader. He uses the timing of poetry in concord with the pace of a life moving and moved by people, images, and ideas. The world of particulars in his verse captures a time (our time) that the reader will want to return to again and again. These poems read like a treasure hunt that never ends. Everyone will have their favorite day in this book of daily poems.

Highly recommended for someone who has some familiarity with the plays and wants to see this terrain through sharper eyes. This is not "CliffsNotes." These are essays by a master critic who loves Shakespeare, written *for* readers who love Shakespeare. But be prepared when Van Doren plays the critic, not the worshipper. If your favorite is "Henry V," for example, keep an open mind and wince along.

A pleasant aspect of this book is that you can take the essays in any order. This means that if, like me, you know some of the more popular plays (Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Lear, Julius Ceasar), but not some of the seldom-performed ones (Titus Andronicus, Troilus and Cressida, King John, Pericles), you can see what Van Doren has to say about "your" plays and then come back when you have hunted up the others.

Van Doren's prose is familiar, easy, and full of love. It is almost a conversation, and hardly less a joy to read than Shakespeare himself.

How often have you encountered a book on Shakespeare or his works that attains a level of writing that is often heart-meltingly gorgeous, even at times comparable to the beauty of the Shakespeare quotations it contains? Probably only once, and this is the book.

A helpful introduction by David Lehman reminds us that Mark Van Doren was a celebrated professor of literature at Columbia University, and a poet of considerable accomplishment, who served as mentor to a long list of students who later achieved great things. In his courses he generally spoke without notes, and this 1939 book on Shakespeare's works was also written without notes or references, other than a well-thumbed one-volume edition of the works, printed in about 1906.

Any modest power of description which I might possess fails utterly for this exquisite book. Instead, let me give a sample of Van Doren's commentary: "It may well be that Shakespeare in 'The Tempest' is telling us for the last time, or consciously for the last time, about the world. But what he is telling us cannot be simple, or we could agree that it is this or that. Perhaps it is this: that the world is not simple. Or, mysteriously enough, that it is what we all take it to be. Any set of symbols, moved close to this play, lights up as if in an electric field. Its meaning, in other words, is precisely as rich as the human mind, and it says that the world is what it is. But what the world is cannot be said in a sentence. Or even in a poem as complete and beautiful as 'The Tempest.'"

I have always loved Shakespeare but, even though I have studied it, sometimes, he is a little difficult to pin down on what exactly he is saying or meaning and it is often hard to get the feel or mood for certain scenes. After all, he was a playwright, not a journalist! And he wrote five centuries ago in the idiomatic English of that time. This critique is absolutely brilliant. Van Doren's feelings on Shakespeare are that he wrote his plays to be enacted on a mostly-bare stage in front of a noisy crowd of Joe Q. Publics, not enacted in an elaborate hushed stage setting in front of a group of phychologist, phychoanalists, etc. I have often felt that some critics see deep, mystical, dark meanings in Shakespeare that he never intended (I feel it is more a reflection of the critic's own phyche). Not to say that Shakespeare is shallow! I feel his "well-written" plays are awesome and unmatched by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Van Doren brings Shakepeare to the light of day in a clear, logical, yet so very elegant way. This book literally brings me to tears, it's so beautiful!

Without question, the depth of emotion revealed and examined by this poet is remarkable. I laughed and cried with recognition. The book drew the feelings out of me. I felt the poet's joy pain misery and glorious resolutions and made them my own. No better choice for the lovestruck or lovelorn in this reviewer's opinion. Get it today.

David Lehman runs a reading series, writes criticism, and edits anthologies, but what he does best is write poems, and Valentine Place is a brilliant collection of some of his best work. Lehman's poems are funny, moving, and full of drama. He is a master of many forms, yet the work itself never seems formal or stilted. Read "Wedding Song," the villanelle that opens the book ("Poetry is a criticism of life/As a jailbreak is a criticism of prison"), to sample what the book has to offer. "A Little History," "Dark Passage," and the title sequence are among the book's highlights. Sex, love, death, politics, baseball---Valentine Place has it all. My only complaint is that there are none of Lehman's sestinas in this book---he's written some of the best.

"Sometimes what you thought was an interruption/Turns out to be your life./And sometimes what you thought was your life/Turns out to have been an interruption./and yet you have to act/As if you were back in the fourth grade/And knew the right answer was Pittsburgh/But put down Bethlehem just to see what would happen-/How it would be feel to be wrong."

One reviewer termed the lines facile. They saved my life.

I checked this book out from the library and after renewing it twice, I figured I ought to break down and buy it. And I did because, happily, it's out in paperback.

Readers, this book was/is NOT a waste of money, no sireeee. It's loaded with passion, veiled hot passages, steamy yearnings, wit, angst, lust/love and even a funny poem that made me laugh out loud. My copy is hilighted and dog-eared and indispensable.

I even sent a spanking new copy to a good friend for her upcoming birthday in July. (Don't buy this book if you're a reviewing friend of mine who loves poetry....you know who you are! LOL!) It's winging its way to you even as I write this review.

Anthologies are the way to go. This one is like a ten course meal with the finest wine and deserts. Buy it, read it, praise it to every poetry lover you know.

This book is indeed a feast between the book covers, and reading the poems will make you want to dive under the covers with your beloved! My copy has been in my hand only a month, and already the pages are becoming dog-earred and the highlighting is prominent. Many anthologies of erotic/love poems contain so much similar material, but this one introduces the reader to many fine but often too little considered erotic poems and poets. Therein lies its greatest value, at least to me. The enthuiastic introduction by editor David Lehman is alone worth the price of the book. I am confident that readers will join me in eagerly looking for a second volume in the near future. In summary, I have the very highest praise for this good anthology, as it has helped me to write better erotic poems. I give this book 5 stars, with a cherry on top!

In the "Evening Sun," David Lehman expresses a poetic sensibility that is rich, deep, and moving. He has captured the personal and the powerful in the memory of days. May 28 and September 18th are my favorites, and it seems odd as one is historical and the other shows the beautiful presence of the poet's voice. I've read a lot of David Lehman's verse and find remarkable here each poem's surprising, powerful, and apropos ending. I closed the "Evening Sun" longing for another poem. I think you will, too.

Even though I haven't appeared in one of David's poems since 1990's "Cambridge 1972" where I met Becky and mistook Joan Miró for a woman -- you probably haven't either! You should still buy this fantastic book of poems!

David will take you to great baseball games (10/9, 10/16, 4/3); share the best music in nearly EVERY poem -- (Mahler on 7/19; Mingus on 11/30; John Cage, Alban Berg {didn't I *first* play his violin concerto for you so many years ago!} and many more)...

You will laugh you will cry you will giggle you will sigh.

Okay, I'll leave the poetry to David.

This is the E-TICKET ride of poetry books. Get it.

I owned the original, bought around 1962 or so.

I've always wondered what happened to it. No doubt it was ripped off by a friend who foresaw better than I that someday it would be revered as a classic.

At the time it seemed the precursor of a tide of similar publications, some of which, one hoped, would improve upon it with more discriminating content.

Nope. It was a one-shot, and this, perhaps as much as anything else aout it, escalated the literary stock of its often trashy writing.

My five-star review is a tribute to both its uniqueness and my nostalgia for the Beat sensibility it represented that was so formative to me.

They should have reissued it on newsprint.

This millennium edition of Leslie's One Shot Review is an excellent reprint returning a classic to new audiences. Originally published in 1960, this volume provides work by some of the finest 20th century authors from Allen Ginsberg and Kenneth Koch to Terry Southern. Also included: Fidel Castro's 1960 address to the U.N. This millennium edition contains a narrative poem by the author commenting on the origins of the original Hasty Papers. A keepsake literary work in an oversized presentation, packed with black and white photos and illustrations.

I don't know what was in the water in 1993, but, as someone who has read every year's Best American Poetry anthology, I can say this is definitely the best collection of all. Louise Gluck--who, I admit, I also quite love--does a near-perfect job in her selections. It is true that you will find all of the heavy-hitters here: Merwin, Kunitz, Ammons, Ashbery, Simic, Updike, mixed with the usual delightful surprises (Carolyn Creedon, the late Tim Dlugos, Alice Fogel, the sublime Robert Kelly.) However, Gluck has a knack for finding even the most oblique poet's most direct and elegant pieces, even unearthing an unusually tender gem from Dean Young. This is a great anthology to teach from, filled as it is with compelling pieces and fascinating behind-the-poem anecdotes by the poets.