Product Description

These poems exhibit the range of Sam Hamill's celebrated practice and vision, from philosophical and discursive elements to the intensely lyrical, from his continuing poems of praise (and elegies) for fellow poets to the clear influence of the Zen classics he has so notably translated.

"To Gray on Our Anniversary"

I've relished years of bliss with you
despite the nefarious Hells
this suffering world has put us through.

I know you're not fond of growing old,
and what pain's to come, only time will tell.
Still, you are my comfort in the cold

of Odyssean storm-tossed seas,
my bride, my muse, my Penelope.

Sam Hamill is the author of fourteen volumes of original poetry. He has published three collections of essays and two dozen volumes translated from ancient Greek, Latin, Estonian, Japanese, and Chinese. He is the founding editor of Copper Canyon Press and director of Poets Against War. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86757 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 90 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Well known as the founder of Copper Canyon Press and the head of the protest group Poets Against the War, Hamill has also proven himself as a prolific poet and translator. This 16th volume of accssible, outspoken free verse pays frequent homage to Japanese and Chinese classics, and to the 20th-century poets Hammill has admired: Martin Espada, Kenneth Rexroth and especially Denise Levertov. Like his heroes, Hammill presents a model of honest, consistent, undisguised political engagement: he articulates not only a vision of peace with justice, not only his relish for work to achieve that vision, but his sense of the role that poetry can play: We need the tale/ that spins the spell that gives us/ eyes to see. He understands, too, that even the most energetic and committed poetry of protest may not always seize the day. Yet the power sympathetic readers are likely to find in his new collection has little to do with self-doubt, and everything to do with the sense that poetry can speak out clearly and try to change the world at least a little bit: Here's to a poets' revolution, he toasts, to the joy/ of being always on the side that loses. (Sept.)
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About the Author
Sam Hamill is the author of fourteen volumes of original poetry, he has published three collections of essays, and two dozen volumes translated from ancient Greek, Latin, Estonian, Japanese, and Chinese. He is the founding Editor of Copper Canyon Press, and founded Poets Against War. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages.

Customer Reviews

Measured By Stone is an anthology of free-verse poetry by Sam Hamill
Measured By Stone is an anthology of free-verse poetry by Sam Hamill, essayist, translator, and Director of Poets Against War. The verses range from quiet contemplation to lyrical tributes to great poetry writers to distilled reflections of classic Zen wisdom. A highly accessible and immersive philosophical tour. "Sweeping the Garden": August dust settles / on all the tiger lilies, / bonsai larch and elm, / on maple and mugo pine: / dust of this world, dust of that. // Weeding the garden, / no dust mote on the mirror- / nothing to reflect. / The days begin to shorten. / Tonight the stars will be clear.