Almost Paradise New and Selected Poems and Translations

by HAMILL, SAM

• ISBN13: 9781590301845
• ISBN10: 1590301846
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-12
• Publisher: Shambhala

Summary

Sam Hamill is that rare figure whose life is continually in dialogue with the rich and diverse tradition of poetry, whether that dialogue takes the form of translating the work of a poet long dead, writing a poem in celebration of the work of a contemporary poet, or musing on what it means to be a poet himself. A true poet's poet-and also the founding editor of Copper Canyon Press, one of the most influential publishers of poetry today-Hamill has been part of America's poetry scene for decades and has won numerous prizes and awards for his work. This collection presents the best of Hamill's work from his thirteen books of original poetry and from his numerous critically acclaimed works of translation, as well as a number of new, previously unpublished poems.

Author Biography

Sam Hamill has published over twenty books translated from the Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Latin, and Estonian as well as fifteen books of original poetry and literary essays. He has been the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest fund, the Andrew Mellon Fund, and the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Traveling Companions
Selected Translations	1	(78)
Ancient Greek Poets	3	(7)
Sappho	3	(2)
Anakreon	5	(3)
Asklepiados	8	(2)
Catullus	10	(3)
Chinese Poets	13	(31)
Lao Tzu	13	(5)
Chuang Tzu	18	(3)
Lu Chi	21	(5)
Wang Wei	26	(3)
Li Po	29	(3)
Tu Fu	32	(4)
Yuan Chen	36	(3)
Su Tung-p'o	39	(2)
Li Ch'ing-chao	41	(3)
Japanese Poets	44	(30)
Saigyo	44	(3)
Ikkyu	47	(2)
Basho	49	(7)
Buson	56	(2)
Ryokan	58	(3)
Issa	61	(10)
Yosano Akiko	71	(3)
Jaan Kaplinski	74	(5)
Almost Paradise
New and Selected Poems	79	(178)
The Nets	81	(1)
A Lover's Quarrel	81	(4)
Gnostology	85	(2)
A Cold Fire	87	(1)
To Kevin, Who Mourns	88	(1)
To John Logan from La Push	88	(1)
Natural History	89	(2)
Kah Tai Purgatorio	91	(1)
Requiem	92	(12)
George Seferis in Sonora	104	(3)
Hellenic Triptych	107	(2)
A Word for Spring	109	(1)
Reading Seferis	110	(3)
Old Bones	113	(1)
Black Marsh Eclogue	114	(1)
A Dragon in the Clouds	115	(1)
The Gift of Tongues	116	(1)
``True Illumination Is Habitude''	117	(2)
Historical Romance	119	(8)
Seated Figure	127	(1)
Dresden Cattle	127	(1)
Blue Monody	128	(18)
Getting It Wrong Again	146	(1)
Scrutability	147	(1)
Lifer	148	(1)
Two Pines	148	(1)
Mountains and Rivers without End	149	(1)
Ten Thousand Sutras	149	(2)
Kannon	151	(1)
Destination Zero	151	(14)
What the Water Knows	165	(1)
Three Stitches	166	(1)
To Gary Snyder	166	(4)
To Adrienne Rich	170	(3)
After Coltrane's ``I'll Get By''	173	(1)
Seattle Spring	173	(1)
``One Who Studies the Past . . .''	174	(1)
To Hayden Carruth	174	(8)
Sisyphus	182	(3)
To Hayden Carruth on His Eightieth Birthday	185	(1)
To Bill and Kris	186	(3)
Song and Dance	189	(2)
Weasel, Crow, and Coyote on the Dharma Trail	191	(1)
Why Crows are Noisy	192	(1)
Rising	192	(2)
Lost in Translation	194	(1)
To W.S. Merwin	195	(2)
In Memoriam, Morris Graves	197	(2)
For Kyra Gray O'Daly	199	(1)
All Here	199	(1)
Midsummer	199	(2)
Seducing the Sparrow	201	(1)
New Math	202	(1)
The Orchid Flower	203	(1)
Organic Form	204	(1)
Little Epic Elegy	204	(1)
Not Meaning, but Being	205	(1)
A Woodsplitter's Meditation	206	(2)
To Amy, before Her Wedding	208	(2)
Reply to T'ao Ch'ien	210	(1)
The Goldfinch	210	(1)
Strawberry Picking	211	(1)
To Yoshinaga Sayuri	211	(2)
The New York Poem	213	(2)
State of the Union, 2003	215	(1)
Poem in the Margins of the Shoyo Roku	216	(1)
Elegy	216	(1)
Nothing Quite So Cold	217	(1)
Sheepherder Coffee	218	(1)
Summer Rain	218	(2)
On Being Asked about Retirement	220	(1)
``Praise a Fool and Make Him Useful''	221	(1)
A Pisan Canto	222	(33)
After a Winter of Grieving	255	(2)
Notes on Traveling Companions	257