About
Public Poetry, Kevin Walzer's meditations on poetry, publishing, business, and other creative pursuits
Your Host
Kevin Walzer, a poet, poetry publisher, husband, and father.
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Get a syndicated feed of my weblog.
Archives
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
Categories
Books
Business
Poetry
Publishing
Tue, 18 Jul 2006
Book of the Day: A River Remains by Larry Smith
Larry Smith's A River Remains is, for me, an important book to publish. I've been a follower of Smith's work for more than a decade; he writes in a plainspoken style that draws on the influence of such Midwestern poets as James Wright and Kenneth Patchen, and Chinese poets such as Li Po as well. His poems are usually meditative lyrics, frequently concern working-class life, and greet the reader in a modest, plain-spoken manner.
In Smith's new book, mortality weighs heavily on the poet's mind. Now in his 60s, he has fought illness, watched his children grow, and retired from his long-time teaching position. Pondering his life, he finds that work and love are what bring richness to his days:
The Bonds of Work“We’ll get the job done,”
I tell my daughter on the phone
and hear my father’s voice, all his life
turning work to love and honor.
“We’ll get the job done”—not perfection
but carry through, and I recall
the long hours of getting his tools
holding flashlights while he lay
on cardboard beneath the car
fixing brakes and starters, changing oil
because he could, because we
needed milk and bread.
When married, he’d help us move
each time not stopping till the beds
were up in each bedroom—his hands
red from lifting, turning wrenches
on appliances, thinking his way through.
And he’d follow our U-Haul back,
return with me and sandwiches,
my wife making the kids’ beds,
Mom serving coffee in paper cups,
only then could we sit and rest.
I give back now this work
for my children grown and wed,
helping them know their grandfather’s
love by the work he bred.
At over 200 pages, A River Remains is a long collection. But it does not feel bloated. Rather, it gives a rich sense of a life's dailiness, in its numerous, brief lyrics. It is Smith's richest collection.