Friday, November 23, 2012

Fifty Years


I utterly madly am in love with the dust jacket for Louise Glück's new book, designed for Farrar, Straus and Giroux by Gretchen Achilles. Illustration credited as Saturn, from a 1988 mezzotint by the artist Vija Celmins.

Indisputably, this is the chunkiest hardcover collection (at 656 pages) by a living poet I ever can recollect handling. Yet I would not change. it. Each page is serene & spacious in layout, serving the noble poetry as it should, which makes the bulk seem worthwhile.

One small sample here, from page 316.

Telemachus' Detachment

When I  was a child looking
at my parents' lives, you know
what I thought? I thought
heartbreaking. Now I think
heartbreaking, but also
insane. Also
very funny.