Passing through gates drill John Balaban is an extraordinary writer and storyteller whose prize winning poetry and prose are informed by a love of languages deep scholarship hard travel and a willingness to confront the violence and sufferings of the world In this essential collection of his work the best of his prize winning poems since 1970 are collected in one place threaded through with essays that link poetry to Balaban s extensive travels whether hitchhiking throughout the United States or wandering the countryside of Vietnam during wartime to record and translate folk poetry The result is a remarkable story about a life in poetry Empathetic truth telling and fiercely perceptive Passing through a Gate is a literary tour de force As Maxine Kumin reminds us Balaban seems to me our moral spokesperson our lyricist our polemicist exhorter and in short the poet we need Passing through a Gate Poems Essays and TranslationsBut what can poets do about the missing words goneeven from those lips that longed to say them like wishesfloating off above the river like coinstossed from barges bridges bateaux mouches Where else is this happening Is it happening at home In a world reduced to billboards he would be totally unnerved. Passing through gates drill The strangely exiled poet has been drinking for ten daysbut this has only sharpened his worry about the wordsfrom George Borisov in ParisJohn Balaban in this tender poem about an aging Bulgarian poet published in his 2006 collection Path Crooked Path touches prophetically on the worry so many of us who adore words who write create publish rinse repeat fret ever about It s not just billboards any the world seems reduced to a thin postcard sized implement we are never than inches from from which emanates the urgencies exigencies and shouts of the world over leaving little room for words that heal Words that matter I want you to know the worst and be free from it I want you to know the worst and still find good. Passing through gates football Day by day as you play nearby or laughwith the ladies at Peoples Bank as we go around townand I find myself beaming like a foolI suspect I am here less for your protectionthan you are here for mine as if you were sentto call me back into our helpless tribe. Go through and pass through from Words for My DaughterIn this exquisite collection of some of his most resonant poetry essays and translations John Balaban reminds us why words matter and why we should stop and rest awhile with words why we should listen to the gods Balaban was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War but he rejected his student deferment and travelled to Vietnam in the late 60s with the International Volunteer Services to teach at Can Tho University He was injured during the Tet Offensive but returned to Vietnam to care for war injured children and later to record and translate ca dao a Vietnamese oral poetic form A tiny bird with red feathers a tiny bird with black beakdrinks up the lotus pond day by day. Passing through gethsemane babylon 5 Passing Through a Gate invites the reader to pass through a threshold into the nourishing poignant sensual world of Balaban s poetry and the grounded delightful humanity of his essays from the time he and his wife freshly landed from Vietnam and only in their twenties hosted Jane Fonda Tom Hayden and their entourage during Fonda and Hayden s anti war tour to getting terrifyingly lost in the desert of New Mexico Balaban as an old man who simply thought to take an early morning walk around the landscape where he was alone working on a book The poetry takes us from New Mexico to Vietnam the Pacific Northwest to Greece and to his parents home country of Romania Along the way Balaban hitchhikes across America an eternal restlessness stirring the poet s soul His work is deeply rooted in landscape his language as clear and refreshing as a mountain stream There is a timelessness about Balaban s work that makes these poems easy and necessary to return to again and again my copy is dog eared with the many that caught my breath and my heart This is a necessary collection of a beloved poet N. Guo gu passing through the gateless barrier B Although I am a staff member of Copper Canyon Press this book s publisher any and all comments are strictly my own 252
John Balaban b 1943 is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose He has won several awards including the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets a National Poetry Series Selection and forLocusts at the Edge of Summer New and Selected Poems the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America He was named the 2001 2004 National Artist for the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi In 2003 he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship He has also been nominated twice for the National Book Award In addition to writing poetry fiction and nonfiction Balaban translates Vietnamese poetry he is also a past president of the American Literary Translators Association Balaban is a poet in residence and English professor in the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
| Passing through a Gate: Poems, Essays, and Translations By John Balaban |
| 1619322900 |
| 9781619322905 |
| English |
| 252 |
| Kindle Edition |
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John Balaban b 1943 is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose He has won several awards including the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets a National Poetry Series Selection and forLocusts at the Edge of Summer New and Selected Poems the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America He was named the 2001 2004 National Artist for the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi In 2003 he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship He has also been nominated twice for the National Book Award In addition to writing poetry fiction and nonfiction Balaban translates Vietnamese poetry he is also a past president of the American Literary Translators Association Balaban is a poet in residence and English professor in the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.Passing through gates football drill
An essential collection of poetry and prose from an award winning poet who faced some of the greatest dramas of his time in American history.Perhaps I must leave you..