All of Us The Collected Poems

by CARVER, RAYMOND

• ISBN13: 9780375703805
• ISBN10: 0375703802
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-04
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

"Carver's poetry is like an almost invisible strand of fishing line reeling us all together, connecting us by the heart." --San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle This prodigiously rich collection suggests that Raymond Carver was not only America's finest writer of short fiction, but also one of its most large-hearted and affecting poets. Like Carver's stories, the more than 300 poems in All of Us are marked by a keen attention to the physical world; an uncanny ability to compress vast feeling into discreet moments; a voice of conversational intimacy, and an unstinting sympathy. This complete edition brings together all the poems of Carver's five previous books, from Fires to the posthumously published No Heroics, Please. It also contains bibliographical and textual notes on individual poems; a chronology of Carver's life and work; and a moving introduction by Carver's widow, the poet Tess Gallagher.

Author Biography

Raymond Carver died in 1988.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface	xxi
Introduction	xxiii
Tess Gallagher
FIRES (1983)
I
Drinking While Driving	3	(1)
Luck	3	(2)
Distress Sale	5	(1)
Your Dog Dies	6	(1)
Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year	7	(1)
Hamid Ramouz (1818--1906)	8	(1)
Bankruptcy	8	(1)
The Baker	9	(1)
Iowa Summer	9	(1)
Alcohol	10	(1)
For Semra, with Martial Vigor	11	(2)
Looking for Work [I]	13	(1)
Cheers	14	(1)
Rogue River Jet-Boat Trip, Gold Beach, Oregon, July 4, 1977	15	(1)
II
You Don't Know What Love Is	16	(5)
III
Morning, Thinking of Empire	21	(1)
The Blue Stones	21	(1)
Tel Aviv and Life on the Mississippi	22	(2)
The News Carried to Macedonia	24	(2)
The Mosque in Jaffa	26	(1)
Not Far from Here	26	(1)
Sudden Rain	27	(1)
Balzac	28	(1)
Country Matters	28	(1)
This Room	29	(1)
Rhodes	30	(1)
Spring, 480 BC	31	(1)
IV
Near Klamath	32	(1)
Autumn	32	(1)
Winter Insomnia	33	(1)
Prosser	33	(1)
At Night the Salmon Move	34	(1)
With a Telescope Rod on Cowiche Creek	35	(1)
Poem for Dr Pratt, a Lady Pathologist	35	(1)
Wes Hardin: From a Photograph	36	(1)
Marriage	37	(1)
The Other Life	38	(1)
The Mailman as Cancer Patient	39	(1)
Poem for Hemingway & W. C. Williams	40	(1)
Torture	41	(1)
Bobber	42	(1)
Highway 99E from Chico	42	(1)
The Cougar	43	(1)
The Current	44	(1)
Hunter	44	(1)
Trying to Sleep Late on a Saturday Morning in November	45	(1)
Louise	46	(1)
Poem for Karl Wallenda, Aerialist Supreme	46	(2)
Deschutes River	48	(1)
Forever	48	(5)
WHERE WATER COMES TOGETHER WITH OTHER WATER (1985)
I
Woolworth's, 1954	53	(2)
Radio Waves	55	(2)
Movement	57	(1)
Hominy and Rain	58	(1)
The Road	59	(1)
Fear	60	(1)
Romanticism	61	(1)
The Ashtray	61	(2)
Still Looking Out for Number One	63	(1)
Where Water Comes Together with Other Water	63	(2)
II
Happiness	65	(1)
The Old Days	66	(1)
Our First House in Sacramento	67	(1)
Next Year	68	(2)
To My Daughter	70	(1)
Anathema	71	(1)
Energy	72	(1)
Locking Yourself Out, Then Trying to Get Back In	73	(1)
Medicine	74	(1)
Wenas Ridge	75	(2)
Reading	77	(1)
Rain	78	(1)
Money	78	(1)
Aspens	79	(2)
III
At Least	81	(1)
The Grant	82	(1)
By Boat	82	(1)
The Poem I Didn't Write	83	(1)
Work	84	(1)
In the Year 2020	84	(2)
The Juggler at Heaven's Gate	86	(1)
My Daughter and Apple Pie	86	(1)
Commerce	87	(1)
The Fishing Pole of the Drowned Man	88	(1)
A Walk	88	(1)
My Dad's Wallet	89	(3)
IV
Ask Him	92	(2)
Next Door	94	(1)
The Caucasus: A Romance	95	(2)
A Forge, and a Scythe	97	(1)
The Pipe	98	(1)
Listening	98	(1)
In Switzerland	99	(3)
V
A Squall	102	(1)
My Crow	103	(1)
The Party	103	(1)
After Rainy Days	104	(1)
Interview	104	(1)
Blood	105	(1)
Tomorrow	106	(1)
Grief	106	(1)
Harley's Swans	107	(2)
VI
Elk Camp	109	(2)
The Windows of the Summer Vacation Houses	111	(2)
Memory [1]	113	(1)
Away	113	(1)
Music	114	(1)
Plus	114	(1)
All Her Life	115	(1)
The Hat	116	(2)
Late Night with Fog and Horses	118	(1)
Venice	119	(1)
The eve of Battle	120	(1)
Extirpation	121	(1)
The Catch	121	(1)
My Death	122	(1)
To Begin With	123	(2)
The Cranes	125	(2)
VII
A Haircut	127	(1)
Happiness in Cornwall	128	(1)
Afghanistan	129	(1)
In a Marine Light near Sequim, Washington	130	(1)
Eagles	131	(1)
Yesterday, Snow	131	(1)
Reading Something in the Restaurant	132	(1)
A Poem Not against Songbirds	133	(1)
Late Afternoon, April 8, 1984	134	(1)
My Work	135	(1)
The Trestle	136	(2)
For Tess	138	(3)
ULTRAMARINE (1986)
I
This Morning	141	(1)
What You Need for Painting	142	(1)
An Afternoon	143	(1)
Circulation	143	(2)
The Cobweb	145	(1)
Balsa Wood	145	(1)
The Projectile	146	(2)
The Mail	148	(1)
The Autopsy Room	149	(1)
Where They'd Lived	150	(1)
Memory [2]	150	(1)
The Car	151	(1)
Stupid	152	(1)
Union Street: San Francisco, Summer 1975	153	(2)
Bonnard's Nudes	155	(1)
Jean's TV	155	(2)
Mesopotamia	157	(1)
The Jungle	158	(1)
Hope	159	(1)
The House behind This One	160	(1)
Limits	161	(2)
The Sensitive Girl	163	(2)
II
The Minuet	165	(1)
Egress	165	(2)
Spell	167	(1)
From the East, Light	168	(1)
A Tall Order	169	(1)
The Author of Her Misfortune	170	(1)
Powder-Monkey	171	(1)
Earwigs	172	(1)
NyQuil	173	(1)
The Possible	174	(1)
Shiftless	175	(1)
The Young Fire Eaters of Mexico City	176	(1)
Where the Groceries Went	176	(1)
What I Can Do	177	(1)
The Little Room	178	(1)
Sweet Light	179	(1)
The Garden	180	(1)
Son	181	(1)
Kafka's Watch	182	(1)
III
The Lightning Speed of the Past	183	(1)
Vigil	183	(1)
In the Lobby of the Hotel del Mayo	184	(1)
Bahia, Brazil	185	(1)
The Phenomenon	186	(1)
Wind	187	(1)
Migration	188	(2)
Sleeping	190	(1)
The River	190	(1)
The Best Time of the Day	191	(1)
Scale	192	(2)
Company	194	(1)
Yesterday	194	(1)
The Schooldesk	195	(2)
Cutlery	197	(1)
The Pen	198	(1)
The Prize	199	(1)
An Account	200	(2)
The Meadow	202	(1)
Loafing	203	(1)
Sinew	203	(2)
Waiting	205	(1)
IV
The Debate	206	(1)
Its Course	206	(2)
September	208	(1)
The White Field	209	(1)
Shooting	210	(1)
The Window	211	(1)
Heels	211	(2)
The Phone Booth	213	(1)
Cadillacs and Poetry	214	(1)
Simple	215	(1)
The Scartch	216	(1)
Mother	216	(1)
The Child	217	(1)
The Fields	218	(1)
After Reading Two Towns in Provence	219	(1)
Evening	220	(1)
The Rest	220	(1)
Slippers	221	(1)
Asia	222	(1)
The Gift	223	(4)
A NEW PATH TO THE WATERFALL (1989)
Gift	227	(2)
Czeslaw Milosz
I
Wet Picture	229	(1)
Jaroslav Seifert
Thermopylae	230	(1)
Two Worlds	230	(1)
Smoke and Deception	231	(1)
Anton Chekhov
In a Greek Orthodox Church near Daphne	231	(1)
For the Record	232	(1)
Transformation	233	(1)
Threat	234	(1)
Conspirators	234	(1)
This Word Love	235	(1)
Don't Run	235	(1)
Chekhov
Woman Bathing	236	(1)
II
The Name	237	(1)
Tomas Transtromer
Looking for Work [2]	237	(1)
The World Book Salesman	238	(1)
The Toes	239	(1)
The Moon, the Train	240	(2)
Two Carriages	242	(1)
Chekhov
Miracle	242	(3)
My Wife	245	(1)
Wine	246	(1)
After the Fire	247	(1)
Chekhov
III
from A Journal of Southern Rivers	248	(1)
Charles Wright
The Kitchen	248	(1)
Songs in the Distance	249	(1)
Chekhov
Suspenders	250	(1)
What You Need to Know for Fishing	251	(1)
Stephen Oliver
Oyntment to Alure Fish to the Bait	252	(1)
James Chetham
The Sturgeon	252	(2)
Night Dampness	254	(1)
Chekhov
Another Mystery	255	(1)
IV
Return to Krakow in 1880	256	(1)
Czeslaw Milosz
Sunday Night	257	(1)
The Painter & the Fish	257	(2)
At Noon	259	(1)
Chekhov
Artaud	259	(1)
Caution	260	(1)
One More	260	(2)
At the Bird Market	262	(1)
Chekhov
His Bathrobe Pockets Stuffed with Notes	262	(2)
The March into Russia	264	(1)
Some Prose on Poetry	265	(3)
Poems	268	(1)
Letter	269	(1)
The Young Girls	270	(1)
V
Epilogue	271	(1)
Robert Lowell
The Offending Eel	271	(3)
Sorrel	274	(1)
Chekhov
The Attic	274	(1)
Margo	274	(1)
On an Old Photograph of My Son	275	(2)
Five O'Clock in the Morning	277	(1)
Chekhov
Summer Fog	277	(1)
Hummingbird	278	(1)
Out	278	(1)
Downstream	279	(1)
Chekhov
The Net	280	(1)
Nearly	280	(3)
VI
Foreboding	283	(1)
Chekhov
Quiet Nights	283	(1)
Sparrow Nights	283	(1)
Chekhov
Lemonade	284	(3)
Such Diamonds	287	(1)
Chekhov
Wake Up	287	(2)
What the Doctor Said	289	(1)
Let's Roar, Your Honor	290	(1)
Chekhov
Proposal	290	(2)
Cherish	292	(1)
Gravy	292	(1)
No Need	293	(1)
Through the Boughs	293	(1)
Afterglow	293	(1)
Late Fragment	294	(83)
APPENDIXES:
1. Uncollected Poems: No Heroics, Please (1991)
The Brass Ring	297	(1)
Beginnings	297	(1)
On the Pampas Tonight	298	(1)
Those Days	298	(1)
The Sunbather, to Herself	299	(1)
No Heroics, Please	300	(1)
Adultery	300	(2)
Poem on My Birthday, July 2	302	(1)
Return	303	(1)
For the Egyptian Coin Today, Arden, Thank You	303	(1)
In the Trenches with Robert Graves	303	(1)
The Man Outside	304	(1)
Seeds	305	(1)
Betrayal	305	(1)
The Contact	306	(1)
Something Is Happening	306	(1)
A Summer in Sacramento	307	(2)
Reaching	309	(1)
Soda Crackers	310	(1)
2. Introduction by Tess Gallagher to A New Path to the Waterfall	311	(10)
3. Small Press Sources of Carver's Major Books	321	(6)
4. A Note on In a Marine Light	327	(6)
5. Bibliographical and Textual Notes	333	(38)
Abbreviations	333	(1)
Notes: Fires	334	(11)
Where Water Comes Together with Other Water	345	(8)
Ultramarine	353	(8)
A New Path to the Waterfall	361	(7)
Uncollected Poems: No Heroics, Please	368	(3)
6. Chronology	371	(5)
7. Posthumous Publications	376	(1)
Index of Titles	377	(4)
Index of First Lines	381

Excerpts

So early it's still almost dark out. I'm near the window with coffee, and the usual early morning stuff that passes for thought. When I see the boy and his friend walking up the road to deliver the newspaper. They wear caps and sweaters, and one boy has a bag over his shoulder. They are so happy they aren't saying anything, these boys. I think if they could, they would take each other's arm. It's early in the morning, and they are doing this thing together. They come on, slowly. The sky is taking on light, though the moon still hangs pale over the water. such beauty that for a minute death and ambition, even love, doesn't enter into this. Happiness. It comes on unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really, any early morning talk about it.

IV. TUESDAY Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year October. Here in this dank, unfamiliar kitchen I study my father's embarrassed young man's face. Sheepish grin, he holds in one hand a string of spiny yellow perch, in the other a bottle of Carlsbad beer. In jeans and denim shirt, he leans against the front fender of a 1934 Ford. He would like to pose bluff and hearty for his posterity, wear his old hat cocked over his ear. All his life my father wanted to be bold. But the eyes give him away, and the hands that limply offer the string of dead perch and the bottle of beer. Father, I love you, yet how can I say thank you, I who can't hold my liquor either, and don't even know the places to fish? You Don't Know What Love Is (an evening with Charles Bukowski) You don't know what love is Bukowski said I'm 51 years old look at me I'm in love with this young broad I got it bad but she's hung up too so it's all right man that's the way it should be I get in their blood and they can't get me out They try everything to get away from me but they all come back in the end They all came back to me except the one I planted I cried over that one but I cried easy in those days Don't let me get onto the hard stuff man I get mean then I could sit here and drink beer with you hippies all night I could drink ten quarts of this beer and nothing it's like water But let me get onto the hard stuff and I'll start throwing people out windows I'll throw anybody out the window I've done it But you don't know what love is You don't know because you've never been in love it's that simple I got this young broad see she's beautiful She calls me Bukowski Bukowski she says in this little voice and I say What But you don't know what love is I'm telling you what it is but you aren't listening There isn't one of you in this room would recognize love if it stepped up and buggered you in the ass I used to think poetry readings were a copout Look I'm 51 years old and I've been around I know they're a copout but I said to myself Bukowski starving is even more of a copout So there you are and nothing is like it should be That fellow what's his name Galway Kinnell I saw his picture in a magazine He has a handsome mug on him but he's a teacher Christ can you imagine But then you're teachers too here I am insulting you already No I haven't heard of him or him either They're all termites Maybe it's ego I don't read much anymore but these people who build reputations on five or six books termites Bukowski she says Why do you listen to classical music all day Can't you hear her saying that Bukowski why do you listen to classical music all day That surprises you doesn't it You wouldn't think a crude bastard like me could listen to classical music all day Brahms Rachmaninoff Bartok Telemann Shit I couldn't write up here Too quiet up here too many trees I like the city that's the place for me I put on my classical music each morning and sit down in front of my typewriter I light a cigar and I smoke it like this see and I say Bukowski you're a lucky man Bukowski you've gone through it all and you're a lucky man and the blue smoke drifts across the table and I look out the window onto Delongpre Avenue and I see people walking up and down the sidewalk and I puff on the cigar like this and then I lay the cigar in the ashtray like this and take a deep breath and I begin to write Bukowski this is the life I say it's good to be poor it's good to have hemorrhoids it's good to be in love But you don't know what it's like You don't know what it's like to be in love If you could see her you'd know what I mean She thought I'd come up here and get laid She just knew it She told me she knew it Shit I'm 51 years old and she's 25 and we're in love and she's jealous Jesus it's beautiful she said she'd claw my eyes out if I came up here and got laid Now that's love for you What do any of you know about it Let me tell you something I've met men in jail who had more style than the people who hang around colleges and go to poetry readings They're bloodsuckers who come to see if the poet's socks are dirty or if he smells under the arms Believe me I won't disappoint em But I want you to remember this there's only one poet in this room tonight only one poet in this town tonight maybe only one real poet in this country tonight and that's me What do any of you know about life What do any of you know about anything Which of you here has been fired from a job or else has beaten up your broad or else has been beaten up by your broad I was fired from Sears and Roebuck five times They'd fire me then hire me back again I was a stockboy for them when I was 35 and then got canned for stealing cookies I know what's it like I've been there I'm 51 years old now and I'm in love This little broad she says Bukowski and I say What and she says I think you're full of shit and I say baby you understand me She's the only broad in the world man or woman I'd take that from But you don't know what love is They all came back to me in the end too every one of em came back except that one I told you about the one I planted We were together seven years We used to drink a lot I see a couple of typers in this room but I don't see any poets I'm not surprised You have to have been in love to write poetry and you don't know what it is to be in love that's your trouble Give me some of that stuff That's right no ice good That's good that's just fine So let's get this show on the road I know what I said but I'll have just one That tastes good Okay then let's go let's get this over with only afterwards don't anyone stand close to an open window Late Fragment And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.

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Excerpted from All of Us: The Collected Poems by Raymond Carver
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