Poetry Books

W. Eric Croomes writes from an eclectic sociological view of the relationships African-Americans face today. Researching deep into our past and bringing it all forward into today's world. Will make you think deeply. Not a book one can read lightly. I have found myself referring more than once back to this book in explaining relationships and the way we deal with them to young people I work with and to my own daughter. The poems are artfully written and thought provoking. The story of Kwasi Benefo will make you think time and time again. Why, how, am I making these mistakes in my relationships and how do they relate to me in the here and now. I have pages dog eared and underlined to refer back to. An important read and study into the psyche of the African-American relationship. I recommend this book highly!

I must admit that I've never been one to purchase and actually read a book of poetry but this one was truly different. This is not your average book of poems. Through this literature you experience various avenues of life as well as cultural events that take you back to the beginning of the Civil Rights movement and beyond. I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Dance in the Dark..." and would recommend it to anyone that enjoys reading.

Powerful. Dance in the Dark is a romantic masterpiece. Each page illuminate heart felt words that move in a rhythm that captivate the spirit. The author of Dance in the Dark pours himself into this beautiful work. Only one that has truly taken a look inside of himself can write like this. It's not difficult at all to hear his voice throughout the book. Mr. Croomes has learned to "Dance in the Dark" and challenges us to dance as he leads us on a journey of spiritual truths of love that dares us to find purpose.

This book was wonderfully written. Readers will understand how the author relates not to just one but many aspects of our lives today. Highly recommend.

DANCE IN THE DARK offers reflections that explores the concept of love and culture in the African American community from past to present day. Along with poetry, Croomes incorporates history and mythology as he addresses the complexity of the issues at hand and how it has impacted us as a people. Croomes offers several interesting pieces throughout the book including "Letters to Eve," "The Edge of Love," and "Diary of an Ex-Queen".

When I first picked up W. Eric Croomes' DANCE IN THE DARK, I was looking forward to seeing a different but unique perspective from the poetic standpoint. While DANCE does offer a beautiful variety of poetry, the heavy commentary that is presented throughout takes away from the book's overall essence.

While Croomes offers poetry that is both passionate and intriguing, my main criticism is that the various essays take away from the book overall. There were times where I felt that I wasn't reading a poetry book due to the content at hand. While I found DANCE IN THE DARK to be interesting, from a poetic standpoint it didn't captivate me as other poets have. Despite this, I do commend Mr. Croomes on a worthy effort.

Reviewed by Kanika (Nika) Wade
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

An award winning anthology of poetry, "Dark Card", is Rebecca Foust's reflections on dealing with her Asperger's Syndrome afflicted Autistic son. The poetry within explains why the chap book is award winning, and why the titular poem was nominated for 2007 Pushcart prize. "Dark Card" is an excellent collection, to be considered by poetry fans everywhere. "Underneath": His face is blank as a kettle pond/dawn, but he feels everything/there is underneath-- //tadpoles, minnows, sunfish, perch/fish-hooks, tangled lines,/frays of fat yarn algae strands,//filaments tethering lily stars/that from above seem free to skim,/milky writhe of swimmers' legs//mossed undersides of floats,/surprising truth of sailboat keels,/their iceberg depth.

The twenty seven linked poems of Dark Card, winner of the 2007 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook award, turn on the poet's experience of raising her son, born with Asperger's syndrome. The narrative arc travels from grief and white-hot anger, to Foust's difficulty in accepting all aspects of her child's disability, opening finally onto transformative acceptance-- a state of grace, perhaps. The resonance of recurring themes and images help mould this collection into an almost novelistic whole.

Foust shows us her gifted, afflicted child as he is. We learn about the syndrome's manifestations, the child's neurological deficits, the wrong-headed practices of institutions responsible for him. When, in the title poem, the boy creates a scene at school, we are shown the coping mechanisms of his mother, as well: she plays the "dark card of the idiot savant ... /...It's my ploy to exorcise their pitchforks and torches/... But it's a swindle, a flimflam, a lie/ a not-celebration of what he sees/with his inward-turned eye:/the patterns in everything---"
The poet's emotions overflow the page. She rages against the possible sources of her son's syndrome. Like a tongue to a tooth, the author worries "...that Gordian- knot neck-throttled curse, /that gene-encrypted, linked-chain curse,//that DES-taken-by-his grandmother curse,/that fumble-fingered-fool-doctor-shaped curse..." . She spits out her indictments in diatribes worthy of the name. Her anger hits its target in "Palace Eunuch":

Don't say you were trying to be kind,
you ball-less prick soft dick eunuch
cowardly coin-counting conservator.
You were practically pissing yourself
in your fear of malpractice,
you were shaking in your green paper booties.

These poems show the many ways in which the quality of life argument is entirely subjective. We see how the boy's behaviors set him apart and make him singular, but we get a rounder view here than in disability poetry purely from the patient's POV (The Hospital Poems by Jim Ferris comes to mind). In one of the best poems, "Asperger Ecstasy," Foust observes the activities that make her son "vibrate with joy." "It can be tying flies under a microscope, knot patterns / the size of this period. It can be cataloging washing / machine brands or the note variations in a symphony, / or committing to memory for joyous recounting / the entire year's schedule for the El-train." As she makes peace with his differences, she begins to celebrate them: "He makes/ meaning from acorns,/ the sky,/knotted bits/ of string." (The Visitation) We watch her empathy swell. She makes us believe her when she says that her son "loves who he is."

Foust's use of poetic devices is as expert as her emotional spectrum is varied. Her line breaks reveal meaning in fresh ways, and her use of sound is a mark of her craft---the sustained vowels throughout "Instrument," the single word lines in the final strophe of "Firstborn," echoing the child's first thin breath; the compound words that heighten the passion in her teeth-gnashing rants. There are allusions to Emily Dickinson's feathered hope and Temple Grandin's empathy, and Foust raises the hair on the reader's arm when she says about her baby, "You freeze my heart to stone/when I measure your foot with my thumb."(No Longer Medusa).

The author reconciles the grim with the hopeful in Dark Card, and her voice never wavers in its fierce emotional honesty. And when, in the extraordinary final poem, the recurring image of her son's Gordian knot "unravels with his years, unwinds, unfolds,/lets loop out in vast uncoiling spirals/whole archives of text,/found worlds," we are moved. The poet has succeeded in making the personal universal. We close the covers, uplifted by Rebecca Foust's courage and her compassionate song.

Life as art ... there is a special gift in the ability to share one's life as art, to issue a challenge to each beholder, to trigger a deeper reaching within and without, to one's coming away changed. The amazingly insightful cover and the signpost of a title dare us to pass through this doorway, to accept the challenge to go beyond and experience what these travelers before us offer to share. Will any two come away with the same experience? I don't think so. For me this journey was worth the beauty, love, and mystery revealed along side the pain of Dark Card. Without the presence of light, we would not even see this silhouette. I am thankful that there are artists and poets who can transcend the dark to share their lives by shining light.

In Dark Card, Rebecca Foust gives the reader a lesson in courage -- the courage of a mother raising a child with a disability, the courage to face the reality this forces upon her, the courage to probe the feelings deep within, and the courage to put those feelings into unforgettable words. This is the open heart of a mother, with all the pain and joy exposed. Read it with respect. It will move you.

I read Dark Card on my vacation. I reacted most deeply to Perfect Target, Sweet Heart, Begin Again - all three made me pause and just feel sick about how cruel people can be to each other and the impacts of seemingly small events on a precious life. It makes me wonder how easily we as individuals and a culture are afraid of vulnerability and the need for eliminating the weak to make ourselves feel strong rather than embracing them. These three poems are marked with tears. There were a few others that really hit me in the gut for how much the emotional content of the poem became my own: Apologies to My OB-GYN, No Longer Medusa, Unreachable Child, He Never Lies, Eighteen (he made it!), Refrigorator Mom. These poems are marked with a check to reread. Thank you for sharing yourself and your son's journey through poetry.

I found the Spanish easy to understand, though his philosophy went over my head!

Aunque no estes de acuerdo con todas las ideas de Octavio Paz, las reflexiones y los analisis de esta mente birllante ayudan a entender nuestra magnifica raza. La escritura lleva al lector al pasado y al presente, para poder entender la condicion de Mexico y su gente. Todos los Mexicanos deberian de sentarse a devorar este libro que clarificara las costumbres de nuestra gente y nos ayuda a entender que tiene que cambiar en nuestra politica para tener un pais mas prospero.

Paz, el ganador del Premio Nobel de 1990, escribo tantos libros destacados-Sor Juana, El arco y la lira, pero este representa el cumbre de su poder artistico. El escribe sobre el hombre mexicano en todas sus formas y tribulaciones. El libro es, al mismo tiempo, un ensayo(o mejor, un libro de ensayos), un analisis, una historia, y, sobre todo, una pregunta-en que consiste este hombre cuyo origen forma parte de la conquista de America, un proceso ya en proceso.

Empieza la obra discutiendo "el pachuco"-una figura del medio siglo XX que representaba la ambiguedad y la frenesi del hispano en los estados unidos durante ese periodo. Despues de esta discusion, continua explicando la cultura hispana desde la epoca precolumbina hasta la revolucion mexicana. Termina la historia con este evento, y la unica cosa que le hace falta a la obra es un analisis de la historia contemporanea.

Este seria el primer libro que le recomienda sobre Mexico al nuevo estudiante.

Octavio Paz, el escritor que haya definido nuestra vida como "olvidado asombro de estar vivos", nos habla de sus ensayos escritos más que hace cincuenta años. Su "La Dialéctica de la Soledad", uno de sus ensayos más destacados, presente sus puntos de vista sobre la soledad no solamente mexicana, sino también la de hombre presente mismo. Paz trata varios temas ensayísticos con la cristalina claridad y persigue un proyecto casi filosófico: muestra la alma mexicana con sus raíces aztecas, su plaza en la vida antigua y contemporánea y, finalmente, su visión de "soñar con los ojos cerrados". Justamente por este ensayo mismo atrevo a recomendar todo el libro tratando de la soledad, cuya presencia en nuestra vida diaria es tan obvia. Además, un interesado en la obra de Octavio Paz debería leer su discurso que había pronunciado en el año 1990 con el motivo de agradecer el galardonar de Premio Nobel. Leyendo Paz, uno descubre que Paz ya contestó muchas de nuestras cuestiónes inquietantes ...

Octavio Paz wrote the definitive sociological book that deciphered the Mexican character. He correctly diagnosed that, in fact, the Mexican was stuck in a labyrinth and condemned to find a way out, and in many respects is still trying to find that way out. He understood that he would receive harsh criticism and he did. However, he stayed true to his calling as a man of letters and delivered a book that must indeed be read by anyone wanting to understand the make-up of the Mexican or the serious scholar searching for understanding in the field of Mexican history. I strongly and without reservation recommend this book, it will change your outlook on this important country and most importantly on the inhabitants and descendants of it forever.

I was in the bookstore yesterday and saw this book reprinted with new cover---a sign that it's been doing great in the market! that says a lot about it's content. I got this book over two years ago; from time to time I took it out from the shelf and it always entertains and brings great romantic feelings! I really hope the editor could do more of this kind of book! I have compared this book with other books of love poems---the unique collection of poems from all around the world, modern and ancient, make this book so much more special. The poems seem to use very effective language and words and put together the most sensual pictures with very little words. Very entertaining and enjoyable! BUY THIS BOOK AND CITE ONE A DAY TO YOUR LOVER LIKE I DO! DO IIIIIITTTTTTT!!!!!!!

186 pages filled with amazing poetry. This book connected.... to both thought, and pleasure.

Erotic love is one of the highest forms of contemplation. ~Kenneth Rexroth

The Erotic Spirit is a collection of beautiful poems mingling together in a land of sensual nirvana. The minute you enter the pages of this stunning anthology, you will find you have entered a sacred sanctuary of desire. You may find yourself startled by the mirroring of emotions. When Sappho (6th century BCE) wrote: "Eros seizes and shakes my very soul like the wind on the mountain shaking ancient oaks," did she imagine women in the future knowing exactly what she was talking about?

Sam Hamill has included moments of beauty to blur the distinction between spirituality and sensuality. The two become one in a swirling of seductive soul expressions.

When I think of you,
fireflies in the marsh rise
like the soul's jewels,
lost to eternal longing,
abandoning my body

~Izumi Shikibu (970-1030)

Rarely have I read a "Preface" so profound in content and so enlightening in regards to poetry. The "Notes on the Poets" section is also essential to your enjoyment and I was so pleased Sam Hamill included information on each poet. Suddenly a poem becomes all the more significant when you read about Sappho jumping from a cliff because her love was not returned.

Sam Hamill is a poet and the author of over thirty books of poetry, translations and essays. He shows a deep understanding of erotic love and has included poems of longing, passion, compassion, sexual love, adoration, devotion and ecstasy.

There are poems from Egypt, Greece, China, Japan, Turkey, India, America, England, Thailand, Mexico, Spain, France, Lebanon, Pakistan, Estonia and Costa Rica.

Featured Poets: Sappho, Anakreon, Asklepiados, Praxilla, Rufinus, Marcus Argentarius, Catullus, Philodemos, Ovid, Petronius Arbiter, Tzu Yeh, Agathias Scholoasticus, Cometas Chartularius, Paulus Silentiarius, Li Po, Otomo No Yakamochi, Yuan Chen, Li Ho, Ariwara No Narihira, Li Hsun, Ono No Komachi, Izumi Shikibu, Liu Yung, Samuel Ha-Nagid, Ou-Yang Hsiu, Mahadeviyakka, Jelaluddin Rumi, Francesco Petrarch, Ikkyu Sojun, Kabir, Vidyapati, Mirabai, William Shakespeare, Bihari, Robert Herrick, Anne Bradstreet, Se Praj, Andrew Marvell, John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, William Blake, John Keats, Walt Whitman, Charles Baudelaire, Emily Dickinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Antonnio Machado, Yosano Akiko, Anna Akhmatova, Pablo Neruda, Kenneth Rexroth, Hayden Carruth, Denise Levertov, Carolyn Kizer, Robert Creeley, Adrienne Rich, Roberto Sosa, Robert Kelly, Lucille Clifton, Jaan Kaplinski, Sam Hamill, Gioconda Belli, Olga Broumas, Maurya Simon and Dorianne Laux.

Within these pages there are poems by an Indian Princess who became a saint, poems by one of the most influential poets in history and even poems from a woman who is considered to be the first poet in America.

Poems to Adore:

Plum Blossoms - A poem describing longing while lovers are apart. The clouds become love notes as a poet drifts in an orchid boat.

Yuan Chen's Remembering - Passion, daydreams and mountains keeping lovers apart.

Fires Run Through My Body - An anonymous Kwakiutl poem describing love as pain. There is a similar theme in Yuan Chen's Remembering where pain is embraced.

The Erotic Spirit will make you breathless! Some of these poems stir up such deep emotions it is as if the poems burst from the pen in order to experience a union with the page on which they were being written.

100 Stars!

~The Rebecca Review

Poems from Walt Whitman, Rumi, Adrienne Rich, Shakespeare, William Blake and Pablo Neruda are just some of the poets listed in this anthology. Out of my 25+ poetry books, it is the one I reach for first if I am looking for something romantic or erotic. Included is a little notation about each poet listed. It's a wonderful little paperback that has gotten re-read often at my house.

I purchased this book as a bon voyage gift for my new love who had to leave the country for a few months during the throes of our blossoming romance, and it has done a tremendous job of helping keep the home fires blazin'! He says it's the best poetry book he's ever read. The poems perfectly capture all aspects of the longing, lust and yearning of lovers throughout the ages. If you're looking for the perfect romantic Valentine's gift for your partner, this is definitely it. A must-read for die-hard romantics everywhere.

This is one of the best illustrated books for children that I have seen in years, I bought two copies and gave them to my daughters who are about to be new mothers. The illustrations are by far the best I've come across

This book is beautifully illustrated with classic nursery rhymes from your childhood. It brings back memories for me.

Most of the included nursery rhymes are ones you will remember and enjoy sharing with your children. Don't get all hung up on what a violent world we live in and think that these are bad morals to teach your children, as one other reviewer of nursery rhyme books went into a diatribe about. The sooner your children realize that everyone is not equal and everyone is not a winner, the better off they will be in adulthood. The P.C. movement in the USA is out of control -- there really are winners and losers in life -- so, motivate your children to be winners through hard work, skill and talent! Don't teach them to expect a trophy and pat-on-the-back telling them how wonderful they are when the reality is something quite different. It's time to get back to basics in this country because the coddling of our children over the past 20 years certainly hasn't produced good results (look around and stop blaming nursery rhymes and video games for YOUR POOR PARENTING).

The morals in this book won't hurt anyone and they certainly didn't turn me into a serial killer. So, enjoy this beautiful book with your children -- I know I am!

This book is the perfect gift for a baby especially if they have an
older sibling that can read to them. Everyone should have the chance
to enjoy the beautiful pictures and rhymes
while holding a precious baby.

Nursery ryhmes are so important to learn as a child. As an adult, I know most of them and wanted to teach them to my children. I researched the perfect book that included all the rhymes I remembered. This book was it!! It had all the classic nursery ryhmes I remembered and more! And you will love the illustrations...beautiful! My son (age 4) remembers each picture and will talk about it. You will find so much detail in each illustration that will add to the nursery ryhme even more. I highly recommend this book!

This is truly the most incredible Mother Goose book that I have ever seen an I'm a children's librarian!!!!

My 6 year old daughter loves this book. She has just started reading and although it's really too difficult for a 1st grader, she has several of the poems partially memorized, and with help can read these aloud. The poems and the paintings that go with them appeal to the silly sense of humor we both share. Our favorites are "Weatherbee's Diner" that mentions my home state of Maine, "Biscuits in the Wind" for it's fabulous absurdity, and when I read "Combo Tango" my daughter acts out the moves as painted in the pictures. This is a great first book of fun poetry.

I purchased this book for our 3-year-old granddaughter, who is enchanted by the poems and the illustrations. She quickly learned to recite parts of the poems and finds something new in the illustrations with each read. Biker Bob is one of her favorites.

I'm a 62 year old widower who heard Scott Simon interview Calef Brown on NPR. I bought it on a whim and it is everything they said it was....funny, catchy and edgy. Buy it for your grandchildren but keep it at your house to read OUT LOUD when you are taking life too seriously.

I got this book to read to my five-year-old and she never tires of it, but I think people of all ages will love Flamingos on the Roof. It can be read in small chunks or all the way through. I can't wait to see more work from this author/illustrator. The language is a bit intricate, so if you're buying this for a child to read on their own, I'd say the book is on a third- or fourth-grade reading level.

We love rhyming stories, and Flamingos on the Roof is no exception. I read a great review about Calef Brown in Wondertime magazine and was not disappointed. Whereas Shel Silverstein is a bit gruesome and crude, Brown's poetry is simple yet creative, fun and silly, and all around great reading with your little one. My 18 mo old loves the iambic pentameter rhythm of the rhyming, and the illustrations are wacky and fun (think Rev Howard Finster naive art). I would love to see him create a longer story someday, as the short poems go by too fast. I'd recommend his books for all ages, little ones and adults.

The Hunting of the Snark is a whacky piece of poetical silliness by Lewis Caroll. Complete nonsense, no-one knows what a Snark is, or why Snark hunters hunt it, or why anyone would want to become a Snark hunter to start with. Anyway, the poem is definitely amusing at times with some of the humour he slips in.

The Hunting of the Snark seems to be a very, very short imitation of The Canterbury Tales. The first chapter (titled a fit) introduces all of the occupations of all the different people going on a journey. However, instead of going on a general pilgrimage and telling tales along the way, their trip is very specific to hunting.

The Baker actually attempts to tell a story, but the Bellman (who leads the group) says there's no time for storytelling. They have to catch the Snark before nightfall.

Along with the Bellman and Baker, a Banker, a Bonnet-maker, a Butcher, a Boots, a Billiard-maker, a Barrister, a Broker, and a Beaver tag along to hunt for the Snark. The Beaver is afraid of getting cut by the Butcher, so he puts on a dagger-proof coat and talks to the Banker about buying an insurance policy.

The Beaver is involved in a hilarious scene with the Butcher later, when the two attempt to compute sums. But perhaps the funniest scene of the entire book is in the Barrister's dream when the Snark declares sentence on a pig, only to find out the pig has been dead long before the trial even began.

I'd highly recommend this short poem for Carroll fans, even though it's not big enough to contain but a small portion of what's to be found in the Alice books.

I have read a great deal of nonsense in the past, but this was by far the best nonsense that I have ever read. There is no point, no meaning, no sense, and no boringness. It is a delightful poem (which is well written and very fun to read aloud) about a crew on a ship hunting a snark. The crew includes a captain who only rings a bell, a beaver, a cook who only cooks beavers (the beaver and the cook did not get along well), a man afraid that the snark would turn into a boojum and make him disappear, etc. As you can tell, this makes for an insanely silly poem. The subtitle is rather fitting, as my sides were definitely hurting from laughter when I was done. Well done Mr. Carroll.

Overall grade: A+

Nonsense poems can easily miss the mark
Yet, this masterpiece has that spark.

"How do you kill a _____?", you ask
To find the answer was the hunters' task.

"What was their fate?", you wonder
Did they ever catch their elusive plunder?

A paragon of haunting Carollian lore
Be in no doubt that you'll finish wanting more.

This poem is just great!

First, this one of the most delightful pieces of writing that ever appeared in (more or less) English. It succeeds as a sustained exercise in illogic. I am sure that only a mathematical logician like Dodgson could possibly have pulled it off - only someone with such deep understanding of reason could master unreason so completely.

Second, Martin Gardner's commentary adds depth and background to the reading. Gardner explains terms that are now obsolete, but also adds his own analysis and a rich history of the Snark phenomenon. It should be no surprise that Gardner is still best known as the long-time editor of Scientific American's column on Mathematical Games, a mathematician himself.

I can't add much to the scholarship or praise that already surrounds this incredible poem. I would like to point out, however, that most non-native English speakers are unfamiliar with this poem. Many of them have only ever seen the serious side of the English language, and have never seen English at play. I consider this short work to be the ideal introduction to the very best of English-language nonsense.

//wiredweird

I love You: a rebus poem book by Jean Marzullo..it is wonderful. I read it to my grandson as a baby and because of the simplicity, rhyming words and picture prompts he was always engaged. He is now almost 5 and he reads it to his little sister. As an added memory, I wrote the date 1/4/05 in the cover and wrote the temperature outside, I do it every year on that date...just another fun thing for us grand parents!

I started reading this book to my sons several years ago. I liked the illustrations and the rhyme and found that with a quick hand turning pages, I could sing it to them as well as I could read it. My sons used to repeat the chorus, "...and, I Love You."

Over the years, we've developed a three-part harmony (trust me, it isn't as good as it might sound) and we sing to their mother at bedtime. The book has also been reintroduced as an early reader, now that they are 5-years old and 4-years old.

This item is eligible for Amazon's 4-for-3 promotion as I write this review, which means you're getting a great value whether this is for your children or to be given as a gift.

I recommend it for your bedtime reading collection, for children ages one to six.

I had to buy this book for the second time as it got so much use it finally fell apart. My kids love this book 2 & 4. My 2 year old walks around with the book saying I LOVE YOU. I actually have to hide this book when I need to do things around the house because I get followed around hearing I love you with the book waving in the air. SOOO Cute! A must get book!

Every kid in my family loves this book. It is a very simple reading poem that it is told with words and pictures. I received it as a gift for my daughter and it is a must read every night. Get this book.

We checked out I Love You: A Rebus Poem by Jean Marzollo from the library on Saturday. I read it twice to both of my children on Saturday. I read it once to my three year old daughter again the next morning. Then she said to me, "Mommy I'll read it to you" & she did. Multiple times she has "read" this book to me. Of course it's a rebus so I am not saying that she can "read". However, I am saying that I love the pre-reading confidence that she is gaining from being able to "read" to her mommy.

GREAT BOOK! Highly recommend. It's a keeper. I will purchase my own copy!

The depth of Benjamin's pessimism has, I think, been underestimated.

"The story is told of an automation constructed in such a way that it could play a winning game of chess, answering each move of an opponent with a countermove. A puppet in Turkish attire and with a hookah in its mouth sat before a chessboard placed on a large table. A system of mirrors created the illusion that this table was transparent from all sides. Actually, a little hunchback who was an expert chess player sat inside and guided the puppet's hand by means of strings. One can imagine a philosophical counterpart to this device. The puppet called "historical materialism" is to win all the time. It can easily be a match for anyone if it enlists the services of theology, which today, as we know, is wizened and has to keep out of sight." Walter Benjamin, First "These on the Philosophy of History", p 253.

One can measure how far the contemporary Marxist (better said, the post or semi-Marxist) left has fallen by how many books have appeared, since the fall of the USSR, enthusing over the radically Universal and allegedly 'Progressive' nature of early Christianity. Walter Benjamin, who was first to place the wise but ugly dwarf (Theology) in the beautiful puppet (Historical Materialism) would be amazed (or perhaps not, see the letters between Benjamin and Scholem) to learn that puppet and dwarf are on the verge of switching places! That is, now the ugly dwarf (historical materialism) wants to hide in (and of course direct) the beautiful puppet of Christian theology. ...Crazy, you say? But even Habermas, the Keeper of the Flame of Critical Theory, has on occasion made somewhat similar noises. The best place, btw, to start reading about this new 'political-theology' probably remains Jacob Taubes.

But perhaps this emergent trend is really not so crazy after all. The only reason the Church became so cozy with Capitalism was its fear of Atheism. The collapse of the Soviet Union ended that fear. Now Christianity faces Capitalism alone. Or not, if the detente being proposed between the left and the Church is actually consummated. But every detente is a conspiracy of enemies to destroy an even greater enemy. The Church was with Capitalism because it had to defeat atheism. Now it is likely that the Church will join (a moderate) Socialism in trying to contain the 'soul-destroying' ravages of capitalism. This is only another move on the chessboard of History. ...But what did Benjamin think of History?

"A Klee painting named "Angelus Novus" shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. This storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress." BENJAMIN, Ninth Thesis on History, p 257.

Picture this Angel, wings pinned back by the wind, shoulders forced back because of that - the Angel of History is almost in the position of the Crucified Christ; except that this crucification does not end. It is this tone of almost ontological despair that was new to the left. This Crucified Angel is the perfect image of the left-wing theoretical pessimism pioneered by not only Benjamin but also Adorno and Horkheimer that split the intellectual left into two camps: the revolutionary and the cultural. And though no one is likely to admit it, the cultural left has quietly come to think of revolution itself as but another 'progressive' force piling up bodies.

It is one of the little ironies of history that this despairing fantasy described contemporary reality exactly. The Angel of History is the image of dialectical knowledge. Rather than seeing disconnected events this Dialectical Knowledge grasps History as One (single catastrophe). Always facing the past ('the owl of Minerva takes flight at night', Hegel said; meaning that dialectical knowledge is retrospective) the 'contemplating' Angel is overwhelmed by historical action - the storm that has been blowing since the expulsion of humanity from paradise - and can never Himself achieve effective action. His knowledge grows in lockstep with the accumulating horror, but each new historical event only results (i,e., gets 'caught in the wings' of our Angel) in more contemplation. So we see how theory (our Angel) is 'irresistibly' propelled into the future. And we also see that the Knowledge dialectical theory gains is precisely equal to the debris the storm hurls at our Angel's feet. With an irony that strives to be equal to the wind blowing from Paradise Benjamin ends this meditation by calling this storm progress.

This is perhaps why Benjamin insisted over 50 years ago that the dwarf Theology must guide the puppet Historical Materialism. Theory can never be equal to action; circumstance piles upon circumstance so rapidly that theory cannot effectively act, and if it does act (presumably) it only adds to the debris. Thus theology (myth) must guide materialism's hand because theoretical knowledge is powerless to help. Benjamin quotes the following remarks of Willy Haas, with approval, in his large Kafka essay;

"'The object of the trial', he writes, 'indeed, the real hero of this incredible book is forgetting, whose main characteristic is the forgetting of itself [...] The most sacred ... act of the ... ritual is the erasing of sins from the book of memory.'
What has been forgotten - and this insight affords us yet another avenue of access to Kafka's work - is never something purely individual." (Benjamin, Franz Kafka, p 131.)

(The last sentence was Benjamin's own.) Theology is a non-individual forgetfulness. Thus myth (theology) is the only forgetfulness worthy of the name. What needs to be forgotten by all of us is the unsurpassable fact of the futility of theory...

It is difficult for most to look such despair in the face.

I have nothing to add to the reviews below except to note for scholarly interest that the essay 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' included in this collection is not Benjamin's final version. (Neither is this title a good translation of the German: 'Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit'. Zohn's translation in the selected writings is better: 'The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility'.) The text in this collection is the 1935 manuscript, as originally published in 1936; the text collected in the Selected Writings, Vol. 4 is the final 1939 version that, as far as I can tell, was not published in Benjamin's lifetime. The difference between the two texts is slight, consisting mainly of some additional sentences here and there and some changed words. At least one of these revisions is, I hypothesize, the result of Adorno's criticisms of his letter to Benjamin of 18 Mar 1936.

Otherwise, for most purposes, this is the best collection of Benjamin's essays available for an introduction to his thought. This volume collects some of the best of his essays that are otherwise spread throughout the selected writings published by the Harvard U.P.

Benjamin is arguably the twentieth century's most important thinker--if there is anything left to say about our lives, it is surely in this book.

In 1940 Walter Benjamin committed suicide at the Franco-Spanish border fearing that he would be unable to escape the grasp of Hitler's regime. He left behind perhaps one of the finest collections of literary theory of his era, complete with lucidly brilliant essays on Kafka, Proust, Baudelaire, and general Marxist theory.

In this wholly excellent collection of essays, a remarkable introduction to Benjamin's life and work is provided by the late philosopher Hannah Arendt, who overviews his political formations and literary output. It's a model form of critical essay writing.

Perhaps the most famous essay in this collection is Benjamin's `The Task of the Translator,' widely regarded as one of the most important and thoughtful contributions to the field.

"No poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no sympathy for the listener."

He argues that translation is a mode, and that the translatability of the work is the primary concern in the process.

Also included is an analysis of the philosophy of history.

I picked up this book primarily for the purpose of reading Benjamin's critically acclaimed essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", as well as for his darkly poetic - and even apocalyptic - "Theses on the Philosophy of History". These essays are among Benjamin's most highly esteemed and are the last two selections in the book; regardless of whether you start with them or with the first essay, "Unpacking My Library: A Talk about Book Collecting", you are likely to be drawn into Benjamin's literary world quite quickly.

In many ways, Benjamin's writing style is quite unassuming; reading even his most profound insights is like reading a letter from an old friend. His writing comes in layers; one must make time to savor his presence. This book covers a range of subjects, from critical literary essays (the aforementioned "Unpacking My Library", as well as essays on Kafka, Baudelaire and Proust), to more hermeneutical reflections ("The Task of the Translator"), to straight up philosophy/theory ("The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and "Theses on the Philosophy of History").

The 51 page introduction by Hannah Arendt is absolutely fantastic. It does not simply provide an overview of Benjamin's life, but sets that life within the culture of early 20th century Germany, focusing especially on the time between the two World Wars. She notes the influences of Zionism and Communism (and Marxism) on Benjamin's thought, as well as the broader cultural influence of a quasi-secularized Judaism in a culture where non-baptized Jews were still kept out of university teaching posts. Her introduction, like Benjamin's own writing, contains deep touches of the intimately personal (she selected the various essays that make up this volume).

In many ways, Benjamin was a deeply religious thinker. A friend of Gershom Scholem's (the founder of the modern-day study of Jewish mysticism), Benjamin and Scholem corresponded for a number of years. Although this particular volume pays little attention to his religious thought, "Theses on the Philosophy of History" (the final selection in the book which, in light of Benjamin's suicide, gives Illuminations a bit of a haunting finale), witnesses to Benjamin's poetic-religious insights:

"The soothsayers who found out from time what it had in store certainly did not experience time as either homogenous or empty. Anyone who keeps this in mind will perhaps get an idea of how past times were experienced in remembrance - namely, in just the same way. We know how the Jews were prohibited from investigating the future. This stripped the future of its magic, to which all those succumb who turn to the soothsayers for enlightenment. This does not imply, however, that for the Jews the future turned into homogenous, empty time. For every second of time was the strait gate through which the Messiah might enter."

Highly recommended.

ILLUMINATIONS is truly a MUST. This book is perfect for those of us who are looking for beauty, understanding, and spiritual richness in life. It is filled with magnificent art work, photographs, drawings and the myriad of various texts just left me astounded. I have given this book to a dozen friends and have received nothing but kudos for doing so! I have referred to ILLUMINATIONS several times during the past year and inevitably receive the inspiration therein.

A book to slowly taste--word by word. Bask in glorious graphics; savor the thick paper; turn only a page a day to make it last!

I gave this book to all my good friends for Christmas. Every one of them, and they are an eclectic group, loves it. This is a book to be savoured like a fine wine. Each time you pick it up, you discover something new and wonderful. I find a favorite poem or photograph or essay or quotation every time I look at it. There are so many jewels here, so much accumulated talent. The editiors, Jennifer McMahon and Mark Tompkins, have truly given all of us who are lucky enough to encounter this book a gift to be treasured for many years. If you haven't been lucky enough to have been given this book, buy one for yourself today. You will love it!

This book is a real treasure. It's a wonderful compilation of art and personal stories from people who are looking for greater spiritual meaning in their lives. Rather than preaching, it has people share their experiences from around the globe about their spiritual journey. It reminded me how alike we all are and validated some of my own inner reflections. I highly recommend this book.

I was delighted and fortunate to discover "Illuminations" through the publication
of one of my poems. It is a gem of a collection, encompassing all faiths and beliefs,
very spiritual and uplifting, filled with beautiful and inspiring pictures, a work of art
in itself. It is at the same time meditation, essay, poetry, and will even spur
your creativity. I was blessed to be part of it and recommend it as an opportunity
for communion with the self.
Helene Cardona, author of The Astonished Universe