The Owner of the House: New Collected Poems 1940-2001

I had read a few books by L. Simpson and I considered him a very good poet, but this collection of his work confirms he is a modern classic. One of the best poets of the century.

Louis Simpson's poems are a gift to the reader and a guide to help one focus on each moment with great clarity and insight. In an earlier collection of poems he writes: "In recent years I have written about occurrences, sometimes very ordinary ones, in which there is a meaning hidden beneath the surface. Bringing out such meanings, it seems to me, is a road poetry can take in a world that, as it grows more industrial, seems less beautiful in the old sense. The more banal and 'anti-poetic' the material, the more there is for the poet to do. For this work a sense of humor is as necessary as an awareness of the drama, terror and beauty of life." We so often live "unpoetic" lives, but Simpson helps us find the poetry that is there, if we have eyes to see it. Here is the last stanza of "The Foggy Lane" Walking in the foggy lane I try to keep my attention fixed on the uneven, muddy surface . . . the pools made by the rain, and wheel ruts, and wet leaves, and the rustling of small animals

from the womb of Jamaica into the tomb of Wheeler Hall but he kept on writing, and thinking in writing, and deforming the narrative poem into a wry little lyric full of pithy sense and twisted ironice morals. I have loved his work a along time, and the man is part of the whole thing, what Wallace Stevens praised as "The Whole Man" composed of his time and climate and place, and nation-language which by now is not the Caribbean but Bush II America. I would honor him with a Pulitizer Prize if I could,this lyric machine still writing at 80, still the same imagistic wit and focus. The Hawaii poems are pretty interestingk even when they are remote, sarcastic, and tourist-sardonic like some haole moon peaking out over Kaimana Beach. But yes I agree that "Particularly now, when experimental schools such as the Language group command critical attention, his poetry can seem old-fashioned. It might best be considered as a model of academic poetry today" as Ivan Arguelles put it in 1988 for the Univ. of California at Berkeley Library. Yes, it is godawfully "old fashioned," and brilliant and animating by turns, twisted like Thomas Hardy and Noel Coward in one: Maybe, "By 50, he understood the Way of Heaven" as Confucius said long ago and far away. Praise him...he keeps writing in his own way & time.

Louis Simpson is an American treasure. His poetry is honest, yetmysterious - plain-spoken, yet artful. This collection offers not only those poems which have long garnered him our highest accolades, but also new poems which reveal an owner of the house who is very much at home. What a rare invitation this collection is - an open door to an open heart! A large heart.An expansive mind. A rare talent.

This work contains many themes about life, pogroms, immigrants,the homeless and occasionally theology. Here are some samples."To the north (Mauka) a mass of rosy clouds two slopes of a mountain sprinkled with garden lights. (Kaimana Beach) or"Beside a Church we dug our holes, By tombstone and by cross They were too shallow for our souls When the ground began to toss. "The readings make for an entertaining session. This poetryis light-hearted but it is not elegant in the style ofan Evangeline or Edgar Allen Poe work.