An Explanation of America

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From An Explanation of America: LAIR Robert Pinsky Inexhaustible, delicate, as if Without source or medium, daylight Undoes the mind; the infinite, Empty actual is too bright, Scattering to where the road Whispers, through a mile of woods ...Later, how quiet the house is: Dusk-like and refined, The sweet Phoebe-note Piercing from the trees; The calm globe of the morning, Things to read or to write Ranged on a table; the brain A dark, stubborn current that breathes Blood, a deaf wadding, The hands feeding it paper And sensations of wood or metal On its own terms. Trying to read I persist a while, finish the recognition By my breath of a dead giant's breath-- Stayed by the space of a rhythm, Witnessing the blue gulf of the air.

Reviews

"[An] ambitious and immensely likable long poem ... a poem which--a rare thing--seems to combine intimacy and authority."--The New York Times Book Review "Wise and compassionate... It is one of the most readable long poems in recent memory, graspable by all."--Kenneth Funsten, The Los Angeles Times "I can't imagine anyone who, after reading An Explanation of America, wouldn't want to return to it again and again."--William H. Pritchard, Poetry