Summary

This volume brings together BODY RAGS and MORTAL ACTS, MORTAL WORDS and THE PAST, three books that are central to the life"s work of one of the masters of contemporary poetry. Included here are many of Galway Kinnell"s best-loved and most anthologized poems. Kinnell has revised some of the poems for this new edition, and comments on his working method in a prefatory note.

Author Biography

Galway Kinnell is a former MacArthur Fellow and has been state poet of Vermont. In 1982 his Selected Poems won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. For many years he was the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Creative Writing at New York University. He is currently a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. For thirty-five years--from WHAT A KINGDOM IT WAS to THE BOOK OF NIGHTMARES to THREEE BOOKS--Galway Kinnell has been enriching American poetry, not only by his poems but also by his teaching and his powerful public readings.

CONTENTS

Author’s Note vii

BODY RAGS

I

Another Night in the Ruins 5
Lost Loves 8
Getting the Mail 9
Vapor Trail Reflected in the Frog Pond 10
The Fossils 12
The Burn 14
One Who Used to Beat His Way 16
The Fly 17
The Falls 18
Mango 19
In the Anse Galet Valley 20
La Bagarède 21
Night in the Forest 22
Going Home by Last Light 23
How Many Nights 25
Last Songs 26
In the Farmhouse 27
The Correspondence School Instructor Says Goodbye to His
Poetry Students 28
The Poem 30

II

The Last River 35

III

Testament of the Thief 57
The Porcupine 62
The Bear 67

MORTAL ACTS, MORTAL WORDS

I

Fergus Falling 75
After Making Love We Hear Footsteps 77
Angling, a Day 78
Saint Francis and the Sow 81
The Choir 82
Two Set Out on Their Journey 83
Brother of My Heart 84
Fisherman 85
Wait 87

II

Daybreak 91
The Gray Heron 92
In the Bamboo Hut 93
Lava 94
Blackberry Eating 96
Kissing the Toad 97
Crying 98
Les Invalides 99
On the Tennis Court at Night 100

III

The Sadness of Brothers 105
Goodbye 109
Looking at Your Face 111
The Last Hiding Places of Snow 112
52 Oswald Street 118

IV

The Rainbow 123
The Apple 125
Memory of Wilmington 126
The Still Time 128
There Are Things I Tell to No One 130
Pont Neuf at Nightfall 133
The Apple Tree 135
A Milk Bottle 137
Flying Home 139

THE PAST

I

The Road Between Here and There 147
The Angel 149
Middle of the Night 150
Conception 151
The Sow Piglet’s Escapes 152
The Olive Wood Fire 153
Milk 154
Lake Memphremagog 155
The Man Splitting Wood in the Daybreak 156
The Frog Pond 157
The Old Life 159

II

Prayer 163
The Ferry Stopping at MacMahon’s Point 164
Mount Fuji at Daybreak 165
Break of Day 166
Farm Picture 167
Some Song 168
Coinaliste 169
Driftwood from a Ship 170
Fire in Luna Park 171
The Geese 172
The Shroud 173

III

Chamberlain’s Porch 177
Cemetery Angels 178
December Day in Honolulu 179
On the Oregon Coast 180
Last Holy Fragrance 182
The Past 186
First Day of the Future 189
The Fundamental Project of Technology 190
The Waking 192
That Silent Evening 195
The Seekonk Woods 197

Acknowledgments 203
Index 205

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

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Excerpts

The Olive Wood FireWhen Fergus woke crying at night, I would carry him from his crib to the rocking chair and sit holding him before the fire of thousand-year-old olive wood. Sometimes, for reasons I never knew and he has forgotten, even after his bottle the big tears would keep on rolling down his big cheeks the left cheek always more brilliant than the right and we would sit, some nights for hours, rocking in the light eking itself out of the ancient wood, and hold each other against the darkness, his close behind and far away in the future, mine I imagined all around. One such time, fallen half-asleep myself, I thought I heard a scream a flier crying out in horror as he dropped fire on he didn't know what or whom, or else a child thus set aflame and sat up alert. The olive wood fire had burned low. In my arms lay Fergus, fast asleep, left cheek glowing, God.Three Books: Copyright 1993, 2002 by Galway Kinnell Mortal Acts, Mortal Words: Copyright 1980 by Galway Kinnell Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company.

Excerpted from Three Books: Body Rags; Mortal Acts, Mortal Words; the Past by Galway Kinnell
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.