Product Description
Brilliant new poems and an expansive gathering from six collections by a Pulitzer Prize winner celebrated as “indispensable.”What Goes On displays the evolving style and sensibility of a major award-winning poet, and a traceable growth that has blossomed into a provocative confrontation with questions of consciousness and existence. Stephen Dunn’s poems probe life’s big questions without ever losing sight of the significance of the mundane. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Stephen Dunn Goes On
This fellow Dunn is a truly wonderful American poet... I've read the book twice in the last few days and am amazed at finding such a poet...certainly knows humnan nature and gettng into its psyche hope he sells tons of books for he gives good for the price of this volume...enough said!

A vivid collection that smoothly interweaves elements of light and dark
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn presents What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009, an anthology of brief, free-verse poems (and a few stream-of-consciousness paragraphs) that touch upon both the humble realities of daily life, and the captivating moments of imagination that illuminate life with breathtaking mystery and wonder. A vivid collection that smoothly interweaves elements of light and dark, What Goes On is a rapturous experience for poetry lovers everywhere. "My Ghost": The desirable place is always another place, / my father said. The restlessness continues. / His voice was calm, though disembodied. / He didn't appear to be complaining. / And it doesn't matter, he added. // Even at that moment I knew I was speaking / to myself. You were dreaming, my wife said, / and I told her the half of it / that tries to masquerade as all - his exact words, / no mention of his face being mine.

Trampled by Good Ideas
I wrote this when I was not quite finished with the book. Enough said.
Trampled by good Ideas

Dear Stephen:

I can only hang onto the torn threads
of your dirty bathrobe.
Then I must dust the floor
with my body.At least the floor shines.

Maybe someone will dance on the floor later,
or play basketball,
depending on the location
of this fantasy tryst I'm dreaming up.

I've given up dreams
of joining the NBA of poetry long ago
but if I'm lucky I may catch a glimpse
of your face from the floor,Who knows.

Maybe talent rubs off from obeisance
or from inhaling the cells of your skin.
Nah.Enough lying around eating humble pie.
I need to finish your book.

Poetry that Awakens
When a poet can make me feel uncomfortable and intrigued while reading a poem in the intimacy of my bed I know I have come across something that deserves praise. Stephen Dunn manages to take the most trivial of experiences and dig them into your flesh where they bury seeds of inquiry and reflection. Dunn makes the reader look back on his/her seemingly mundane life experiences and reevaluate the effect it has had in their life. Not many poets have the power to use simple words as a medium of such powerful expression.

Dunn's writing is not complicated in its words, allusions, or symbolism. The simplicity these poems are dressed in makes the message and feeling of them raw and exposing. Since the poems are stripped of heavy abstractness, the reader has no choice but to fully be overtaken by the bluntness of the subject matter talked about in each poem. In "Talk to God" Dunn writes about how humanity should thank God for all he has given, and he addresses that we commit sins because of the knowledge that was granted to us by God. It can be interpreted that the reason we are sinners is because God made us that way. Dunn wants the reader to question "if when he gave us desire,/ he underestimated its power." Dunn also wants the reader to be "sincere" when thanking God for the small beauties that live around us. The reader is pulled in two directions by this poem. God gave us beauty, but he also gave us sin, and we should be thankful for both.

The poems have nothing to hide, nothing to be looked into, only to be felt and thought about. While reading these poems I felt violated, in a good way of course. Dunn addresses love, infidelity, religion, sexual experiences and occasions as mundane as calling a friend, all of which have a sinister and/or erotic sense looming in the background. The poems contain a raunchy, unapologetic demeanor that caused me to tilt my head, widen my eyes, and jerk back a bit while reading them. The collection contains work from Dunn's previous collection as well as a collection of new work. The timelessness of his subject matter has allowed his poetry to still be as gut stirring in his previous collections as it is now and this collection of work encompasses a wide variety of work from his previous collections as well as his new work.

an invigorating and illuminating collection
Some poets are able to capture an extraordinary moment in their poetry, illuminating for the reader something completely unparalleled, something which makes the reader sit up and go, "Whoa, I wish I could have experienced that."

But other poets are able to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. They are able to reflect on something common (the burial of a family pet, a wife's arrival home, the endless cycle of tabloid news) and show each beautiful angle, each hidden emotion -- both comic and tragic.

Stephen Dunn's "What Goes Around" delves heavily into the latter, allowing the reader to experience ordinary life in new, glittering way. After spending some time with this book, I was left seeing my world with fresh eyes, seeing poetry in everything, as Mr. Dunn seemingly does.

This is a poet working at his full potential: confident but intimidating, cleanly lean but not boringly sparse, experimental but not alienating. It's a wonderful, fulfilling collection for any Dunn fan, and a wonderful introduction to his work for those not already smitten by Dunn and his transcending verse.
... Read more

Product Description
Justly celebrated as one of our strongest poets,Stephen Dunn selects from his eight collectionsand presents sixteen new poems marked by thehaunting "Snowmass Cycle."Amazon.com Review
Stephen Dunn has produced a very impressive body of work whichavoids grand themes and focuses on the details. His "Essay on thePersonal," could almost serve as his poetic mission statement:"Because finally the personal / is all that matters, / we spend yearsdescribing stones, /chairs, abandoned farmhouses." These personalobsession aren't the whole picture, though. They lead, ultimately,outward, in the individual's wish to understand others and to beunderstood. Of the new poems, "Decorum," about an argument over aprofane word in a creative writing class, is the standout. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A genius bringing the world the kind of magnificently crafted truth it needs
Stephen Dunn is among the top 5 contemporary American poets--I would place him at the top.His poems are honest and powerful and impeccably crafted.I think he should be required reading, but then again I think no one should go out the door and about their business until they have spent some quiet minutes with some great poetry.Food for the soul.
His book of essays, Walking Light, is also brilliant.

I have bought this book four times!
I was first introduced to Stephen Dunn in college creative writing classes.I bought this collection first, and have read it over and over.When I have had close friends that appreciate the arts come into or leave my life, or go through a tough or introspective stage, I have passed on this collection to them--hopefully, to inspire them as it has me.Dunn has brilliant observations on the human condition, from the silly everyday things to the most life changing events that we all ultimately share.He is one of the few poets that I have read that can combine the headiness of abstract and philosophical ideas with descriptive and moving personal details to craft poems you will want to read many times throughout your life.Beautifully delicate, honest and thoughtful.

A delight to rediscover over and over again
Having read most of Dunn's poetry, and in particular, having read this book several times, I find that Dunn is a writer I can always come back to.His style is unique, and always gets to the crux of what seems to drivehuman actions. Not only are his poems accessible and inspiring but theyexemplify why I read poetry.

If I were to own only one book of poetry, this would be it!
Whether you're a novice of poetry or the next "Great One," you'll connect with these poems by Dunn.Not only is he truly a master ofthe language in free verse form, but also a master of bringing any subjectmatter to life.He has an understanding beyond what many poets often do,but at the same time he communicates this understanding through veryaccessible and clear writing.I am always going back to this book ofpoetry by Dunn.

(in particular, be sure to read "The RoutineThings Around the House" and "At the Smithville MethodistChurch") ... Read more

Product Description
Commited to exploring the role of poetry and poets in our culture, Stephen Dunn provides a new, expanded edition of the essays originally published by W. W. Norton in 1993, now out of print. In Walking Light, Dunn plumbs the relationship between art and sport, the role of imagination in writing poetry, and emphasizes the need for surprise and discovery in a poem. "Your poem effectively begins, " he writes, "at the first moment you've surprised or startled yourself."An essential book for readers, writers, teachers, and lovers of poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Collection to Inspire Writers
A college creative writing teacher first introduced me to this book in 1997 and I have loved to visit it over years. Dunn writes in a way that is distinctly personal, humorous, sincere, and sometimes brutally honest.He is a gifted storyteller who is able to weave writing advice effortlessly in with his tales. I would recommend my "favorite" chapters, but feel like this is a book best discovered without someone else's prejudices. This book can be read straight through from cover to cover, or the reader can skip around and read based on a chapter heading that catches his/her interest. Pick up this book and you'll want to seek out the rest of Dunn's writing. ... Read more

Product Description
Wise and searching new poems from the winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

In his twelfth collection, his first since winning the Pulitzer Prize, Stephen Dunn turns his keen gaze on Sisyphus, our contemporary Everyman. Free, for the time being, from the power of the gods and the ceaseless weight of the rock, he struggles to navigate twenty-first-century America. In language by turns mordant and tender, often elegiac, Dunn illuminates the quotidian burdens of his all-too-human hero, as well as the abrasions of ambivalence and choice, finally concluding that "here / and there, though mostly here, even fate is reversible / with struggle or luck."

In a second sequence of poems, nineteenth-century novelists become "local visitors" to the author's South Jersey towns. "Chekhov in Port Republic," "Jane Austen in Egg Harbor," "Dostoyevsky in Wildwood": these inventions and others give Dunn provocative new latitudes. As in his previous books, "he balances the casual and the vivid as he plumbs the ambiguity and mystery of human relations" (New York Times Book Review). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

As always
As always, this collection of Dunn's is enlightening and rewarding.He's our best living American poet...

These poems study the foibles of heroes who are only human
Local Visitations is a selection of free-verse poetry by Pulitzer prize-winner Stephen Dunn. Elegant and brief, these poems study the foibles of heroes who are only human. The Animals of America: The animals have come down from the hills/and through the forests and across the prairies./They are American animals, and carry with them/a history of their slaughter. There's not one/who doesn't sleep with an eye open.//Our of necessity the small have banded/with the large, the large with the large/of different species. When dark comes/they form an enormous circle.//It's all, after years of night-whispers/and long-range cries, coming together.//To make a new world the American animals/know there must be sacrifices. Every evening/a prayer is said for the spies who've volunteered/to be petted in the houses of the enemy./"They are savages," one reported,/"Let no one be fooled by their capacity for loving."

Not Just More of the Same
Opening with a playful and vivid poem, "Bowl Of Fruit" that, as always with Stephen Dunn, weaves its way confidently from bananas and oranges to yet another poignant and sincere statement on desire, Dunn's 12th book of poems revises familiar themes with an eye more towards celebration than despair.

Dunn hints of a Blake gone fiendish in lines such as "But surely by now you've come to realize/there is no worm, only this bowl of fruit/made of words, only these seductions." For a second, at least, the famed "invisible worm" of Blake's "The Sick Rose" is kept at bay in favor of the world's fleeting but "seductive" pleasures; a rather drastic change of tone from the almost ceaseless morbidity that characterized Dunn's previous volume, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Different Hours.

However, Dunn is hardly about to recant much of his past 11 collections of warnings in verse against the illusion of happiness, as in the wickedly enjambed poem, "Circular": "a belief in happiness bred/despair, though despair could be assuaged/by belief, which required faith . . . and best to have music/to sweeten a sadness, underscore joy."

Despite Dunn's urge towards life's morose truths, though, images of a modern-day Sisyphus daring a smile in the midst of his punishment, "a smile so inward it cannot be seen," and notions such as "at the bottom of depression, says James Hollis/is some meaningful task waiting to be found" suggest that Local Visitations is a kind of reconciliation with the harrowing blues of Different Hours.

If Different Hours advised against desire's inevitably painful temptations, many poems in Local Visitations transcend caution and despair in favor of delight and wonder. "The problem is how to look intelligent/with our mouths agape/how to be delighted, not stupefied/when the caterpillar shrugs and becomes a butterfly," Dunn avers in "Knowledge." If life's grander pleasures fail us, perhaps we might turn, instead, to its smaller joys. If the human being is doomed to fallibility, perhaps we might learn "how to love amid the encroachments," as Dunn suggests in his uniquely poignant plainspokenness.

But if, after so many books of thwarted longing, Dunn's observations on "how boring sorrows are" is not enough of a refreshment to his seasoned readers, then the playful, imaginative and engaging section of poems in which he escorts a cadre of famous authors through the landscape of his Native New Jersey serves as a remarkable new dimension to Dunn's distinctive and persistent voice.

"Because the famous usually have little to say/to each other after the first paeans of praise," Dunn explains, "the poet thought that for their own sakes/he'd have them live in separate towns." Pivoting off of this introductory poem, Dunn leaps into a succession of poems with titles such as "Chekhov in Port Republic," "Charlotte Bronte in Leeds Point," "George Eliot in Beach Haven," and "Twain in Atlantic City."

With his imagination tuned to a fever pitch, these particular poems read like short stories in verse, brimful of ideas, wit and confidence, guaranteeing the well-versed reader's pleasure. "Occasionally the weak survive/because the god that doesn't exist/wants to give us something to misinterpret/That's what Crane was thinking as he washed up on Longport Beach," Dunn narrates in "Stephen Crane in Longport."

While Dunn's playfulness here is more indicative of the work of Billy Collins or Deborah Garrison, still his voice maintains its gravity and cunning as he delves beneath the hearts of his subjects, revealing the alienation that burdened the young, brilliant Stephen Crane: "It's pointless, Crane wanted to say/wherever you're all going/but he knew they'd think he was lying/or maybe not even hear him."

Though a familiar tinge of helplessness enervates the book's tendency towards an awareness of the world's smaller, more manageable delights, it does not overwhelm or sour Dunn's attempt to emerge from the smolder and ruin of Different Hours. Local Visitations is likely one of Dunn's boldest and brightest books, suggesting that the resignation pervading Different Hours is only a temporary waiting room for those whose eyes are fixed on that "meaningful task waiting to be found." ... Read more

Product Description
Winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

A wise and graceful new collection by one of our "major, indispensable poets" (Sidney Lea). The mysteries of Eros and Thanatos, the stubborn endurance of mind and body in the face of diminishment--these are the undercurrents of Stephen Dunn's eleventh volume. "I am interested in exploring the 'different' hours," he says, "not only of one's life, but also of the larger historical and philosophical life beyond the personal." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Wonderful Hours.
Lovely collection of poems. Dunn has a wry wit, and it extremely enjoyable to read. I believe this book would please a great diversity of readers, both poetry enthusiasts and non-poetry enthusiasts.

Simple Yet Complex
I first came across Stephen Dunn's work in Contemporary American Poetry by A. Poulin, Jr. and Michael Waters (Eight Edition).I feel enjoyed the few poems included there and wanted to read more.Recommended from a friend, I purchased Different Hours by Stephen Dunn.I enjoyed almost every single one of his poems and read and re-read them over and over again.I loved how his poems at first seemed simple, but after reading them again and really analyzing them, they were really more complex than that.I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to read stimulating and interesting poetry.Some of my favorites include, "John & Mary," "After," and "The Death of God."

Pulitzer Prize-What else can be said
Needless to say this is the goal of a lifetime for modern poets; write a Pulitzer Prize winning collection of poems.For Dunn this is validation of a lifetime of effort; the ultimate credential in poetry.The wording and imagery is exquisite.Unfortunately, he like most poets is not well served by his art.His poetry offers little for those searching for the next step but he seems to say there is no next step. For Dunn the truth is bland, ordinary, and frightenly hopeless.Dunn suggests we are all heading towards an abysmal oblivion. Some say he has the courage to look at reality.I know him and I say he could use some prozac or a good dose of the real truth; the eternal peace within all of us.But hey, it's like finding a needle in a hey stack.Say hello Steve.
I will continue to hang out with Hafiz and Rumi.They are definitiely more fun.And besides, getting a hold on the "Beloved" is like grabbing a Grizzley Bear by the nuts and making love to a beautiful woman all at once.

Wow...welcome back to a time of Yeats and Eliot...
I first picked this book up before a class where we studied the Odyssey and while at the Columbia Bookstore I randomly opened the book up to 'Odysseus's Secret,' a poem that takes the Odysseus story and makes it applicable to the way with which we live our lives, moving with and dealing with the twists and turns that make us who we are. Suffice it to say after reading that I bought it immediately. After reading some of the other poems, most especially 'The Reverse Side,' I fell in love with this and can see why it was chosen to win the Pulitzer. The poetry uses such sparse language, yet conveys and addresses some of the major hurdles we deal with in life. I loved it and have placed it on my shelf next to some Yeats and Eliot.

Great Poems
I'm no poet, and I'm not about to wax poetic here, on Amazon.com.I simply enjoy reading good poetry.There are only a few of us.You know, the people who read but don't write poetry.

Different Hours is by far my favorite collection of poetry.I've read many of Dunn's other collections, and have not been as impressed.This has nothing to do with the little gold stamp on the corner of the cover, either.The poems are well-balanced, and make you feel like Dunn has revealed something about his subject that is just under the surface - whether it be aging, weather, or nostalgic memories.The feeling is similar to being around someone with a skill not your own, like playing basketball with someone who, unlike you, can dunk.Unlike myself, and many writers I've read, Dunn is skilled in explaining feelings and observations in ways that actually make you feel like you've learned something about yourself.

Quite simply, reading poems like Zero Hour, Dog Weather, and others, will cause you to experience the ordinary in a new way that is both foreign and addictive. ... Read more

Product Description
“Essential to contemporary poetry collections.”—LibraryJournalIn his fourteenth collection, Stephen Dunn, “one of our indispensable poets”(Miami Herald),continues to probe brilliantly the unsaid and the elusive in the lives we live, in languagethat Gerald Sternhas called “unbearablyfearless and beautiful.” ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Emptiness
Still enjoying the book...have read the first half of the book in one sitting and the mundaneness of life (having to go to work) has forced me to delay reading the rest...

ANyone who can write like this ...is a genius!

EMPTINESS

I've learned mine can't be filled,
only alchemized. Many times
it's become a paragraph or a page.
But usually I've hidden it,
not knowing until too late
how enormous it grows in its dark.

...

A great american poet
Dunn well deserved the Pulitzer. His body of work is impressive and while this voulme is good, it is not one of bestbut still a joy. He ruminates on life from the perspective of age, "A Small Part"(many summers later I'd learn to love/the shadows illumination creates/but experience always occurs too late/to undo what's been done).And he imparts the wisdom of having seen a lot over a very long time in "Critics" ("Their job is sometimesto winnow/and omit.Yours is to go on...your job is to show up,continue on.")For first timers,try"Bewteen Angels" or "Local Visitations."

poems rooted in common soil
Over time, Stephen Dunn has dared to tackle the intangible as well as the concrete.This is in addition to the multitudinous sides of human existence he has always explored.Dunn does not reveal what we want to know about ourselves, but what we need to know.Just like in _Riffs & Reciprocities_, where opposites found similarities and agreement and common bonds within each other, so do the explorations of this fine poet in this collection touch upon not only the light and dark, but the softly illuminated as well.From taking on the challenge of explicating the adulterer to the point of empathy and maybe unwilling agreement with the reader, to the wisdom of self that comes through the revealing of dark family secrets, Dunn rubs the tarnish off of hidden heirlooms that may still never make their way out to the mantle to be proudly displayed, but will make themselves a little more relevant to your daily chores.Dunn is someone to read a little more of every morning to make help make your day a little more meaningful. ... Read more

Product Description
"Between Angels affirms what we are capable of in our best moments—grace, tenderness, love—while acknowledging that the human heart can be merciless. It's a book of great breadth."--Gregory Djanikian, Philadelphia Inquirer ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Poetry for everyone
I love this book of poems, and I love Stephen Dunn's work in general.His masterful and eloquent (and often surprising) use of language is so artful that it must be respected by the academic writing community, yet it is accessible enough that anyone (even those who do not ordinarily "get" poetry) can read and enjoy these poems.Stephen Dunn is, quite simply one of the greatest living American poets.

An Exceptional Book to Read and Give
The poems in "Between Angels" avoid cliche and the predictable territory of 'angels' -- while remaining tender, evocative, passionate, lyrical, and profound.I can't count the hours I have spent with this book, nor how many copies I have given as gifts.If I were to try to explain why I turn to poetry for companionship, nourishment, joy, beauty -- I probably would offer this book as an answer.

BUY IT trust me it's good
Stephen Dunn is genious and I feel this is his best work yet, I have read this book at least twelve times, and I have't owned it that long.

Best work from one of our best living poets
Stephen Dunn is a wonderful writer whose work has evolved over the years from terribly funny to terribly poignant.He is also one of the nicest men you'll ever meet.If you've never read him and wonder what you'd think, find a copy of this book in the library and read the first poem, "The Guardian Angel," which is my personal favorite of all his works.If you like it as much as I did, you'll buy the book.

Beautiful Voice
Stephen Dunn has a beautiful voice that is in no way preachy or condescending to the reader.His poems are easy on the eyes and healing for the heart. S. Rea ... Read more

Product Description
Known as the bible of pediatric nurse practitioners, this text is a concise reference book of basic pediatric guidelines and protocols that are up-to-date, informative and easy-to-use. Beautifully organized, this highly acclaimed text provides detailed information on giving care to children in ambulatory settings, offers anticipatory guidance and guidelines for well child care, covers common health problems and profiles medications commonly used in ambulatory pediatrics. This updated third edition includes new section overviews, addresses new pediatric health problems, includes new drugs and contains a new immunization schedule. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Must have resource for PNP students
Compact, easy to navigate, must-have resource for any PNP student.I use it every day during my clinicals and use it for every case study I have to write.It has well child care for every age, anticipatory guidance for every age, immunization schedules, common diagnoses with plans, and is written by MA RNs and NPs!

Ambulatory Pediatrics
This books is a wast of money. I bought it for my nursing class but did not use it because we already had other textbooks that covered more materilas as compared with this book.

good content, stinky wire binding
the content is good, easy to read.i liked the fact that it's a paperback, easy to carry, and somewhat light but i found the wirebinding to keep snagging on different things in my bag. overall, a good resource to have. ... Read more

Product Description
"Here is the mature work of a poet who has always managed to delight—but who now demands something more of us. He asks us to enter the twenty-first century with open eyes: attentive to the past, eager for the future, naming what we love."--Judith Kitchen, Georgia Review ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Landscape at the End of the Century
This book of poems is perhaps as good, or even better than his Pulitzer Prize winning 'Different Hours.'I have read most of his works, and was a writing student of his at Stockton State College.Equally good and a must read is Stephen Dunn's 'Between Angels.'

Landscape at the End of the Century
This book of poems is perhaps as good, or even better than his Pulitzer Prize winning 'Different Hours.'I have read most of his works, and was a writing student of his at Stockton State College.Equally good and a must read is Stephen Dunn's 'Between Angels.' ... Read more

Product Description
In this tenth collection, Stephen Dunn turns his "wise, well-practiced eye" (Library Journal) on an America growing ever more stringent with its daily mercies. Not content merely to observe the world, Dunn's stance is always dual, complicit. And as he navigates through each paradox of his moral and aesthetic and erotic selves, this poet, described by Sydney Lea as one "who remains open to contradictions," travels to a place of exact and complicated vision. A National Book Critics Circle Nominee.Amazon.com Review
Dunn's new collection of poetry, the first since his New & Selected Poems 1974-1994,explores interior worlds of human loneliness and exterior worlds of Darwiniananimal struggle. Broken relationships figure prominently in the human world,with a sense of loss that kills free will: "Everything was clear, andnothing much/the better for it./ They agreed it was a matter of caring,/ andeach felt the dull courage that comes/ from caring less." With theanimals, free will is absent anyway, and the savage realities come inevitablyas instinct--as when a tiger cub raised by goats discovers its carnivorousand lethal nature. The common thread in many poems is the acknowledgment of acrushing determinism. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Great collection of poems
Stephen Dunn is a wonderful contemporary poet. His poems are witty, sublime and sometimes humorous. This is a quick read, but a also a must read.

Loosestrife Poems are #1
I have recently read the book Loosestrife: Poems, and i highlyrecommend it. Stephen Dunn has magnificently described Purpleloosestrife and it's threat to our society! Please read this book andstop the spread of purple loosestrife! These poems are an inspiration to everyone! I recommend that everyone read this book! THANK YOU Stephen Dunn!

Dunn Examines the Dark Side
This is one of the better offerings from one of the better postmodern poets. Dunn, an academic, is amazingly proficient at avoiding the talkativeness of the academy poets, and he seems able to finish a poemwithout forcing it, a real treat. "Tuscon" involves a variationof evil encountered in a redneck bar, and is effective, and ditto for"Wild," set in Spain during what I would assume was the poet'syouthful, "hippie" interlude. I especially enjoyed"Grace," a poem concerning the 1993 Phillies, in particularpitcher Terry Mulholland's willingness to forgive Mitch Williams for hisunpardonable sin. Best of all, however, is the title piece("Loosestrife") which concludes the book. From the vantage of hisrural South Jersey home,Dunn reflects on Nature, on impending politicalchange in Washington (circa 1994),and the changing seasons."Theimpatient, upstart crocuses/ and daffodils fell once again/ for the lies ofMarch./They simply wanted to exist. The warm sun must have said Now, /andthey gave themselves/ to that first, hardly refusable touch."Thanksto Dunn, and to the likes of Gluck (The Wild Iris)and Dobyns(CemeteryNights), well written poetry, enjoyable poetry, poetry capable of exploringthe mortal, the sinister, and the tragic, appears to be making a comeback. ... Read more

Product Description
Stephen Dunn experiments with short, related pieces that play off each other in the manner of jazz improvisations. The resulting pairs cover such subjects as "Scruples/Saints," "Hypocrisy/Precision," and "Anger/Generosity." The wisdom and startling turns we've come to expect from Dunn are everywhere in the ninety miniatures (forty-five pairs) that comprise this volume. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Deep and Accessible
This is poetry, prose, philosophy.These paired prose poems offer the reader a place to think and to feel.You get the best of what poetry and prose can do. All of them repay a second read. That rare kind of writer who goes deep but remains accessible. Excellent.

Let's Hope Dunn is Done with Prose Poetry
While certainly better than the majority of pseudo-philosophical goop that passes itself off as poetry (or even worse--"prose poetry"), Riffs and Reciprocities was a disappointment, especially given the heightsDunn is capable of reaching in his work. We have to admire Dunn forattempting new styles/directions in his work and for not just recycling themost reader-friendly version of himself for his audience (as Billy Collinsand Stephen Dobyns have, unfortunately, done with their latest efforts). But these prose pieces never aspire to much more than passing ruminations,and, at times, they come dangerously close to imitating "DeepThoughts" by Jack Handy.Stick with Landscape at the End of theCentury if you want to read Dunn at his finest. His poem "On the Deathof a Colleague" is better than anything in his last two books.

Sparks and washings
Stephen has been metamorphizing before our eyes.'What is this?What is this?' we ask, and the answers, in his best moments, are never going to be simple.He is too good to us to allow us what we believe to be simplicity (and we may even be right about it).This book undulates in pairs that entertain with no boorish party manners.I laugh harder at the more serious mutterings, and I always feel the urge to sing.Excellent well, Stephen...excellent well.

These short prose pairs speak volumes.
These prose pairs are surprisingly musical, counterpointing the rhythms of English prose (see Syntax and Mimesis) and the tighter, more angular rhythms of poetry. The poems are as multifaceted as diamonds and strike sparks as they play off each other and their own titles.They open in and out, in very direction. The voice is fluid, supple, and seductive.It's an illuminating and powerfully moving book. ... Read more

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This acclaimed anthology takes the reader on a literary journey along the Jersey Shore from the tip of Sandy Hook to Cape May Point. More than 40 short stories, essays and poems capture this beloved stretch of sandy beaches, bays, boardwalks, and towns, along with documentary photographs and art. Contributors include nationally celebrated authors (John McPhee, Gay Talese, Robert Pinsky, among others) as well as talented writers whose work promises future acclaim. A great beach book in any season, this anthology will transport readers to the Jersey Shore wherever they may be. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Absolutely worth the price of admission!
The sheer scope of this collection shows how impactful the landscape (and seascape) of the Jersey Shore has been.There isn't a bad story in this collection.They are evocative, exciting, emotional and just plainwell-done. ... Read more

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Univ. of Washington, Seattle. Pocket-sized text provides an understanding of behavior change counseling and offers counseling methods to help patients change their behavior. Methods are based on Motivational Interviewing (MI), an evidence-based counseling style, and can be used in various healthcare settings. For psychologists and counselors. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

ThelastDodo.
This Book is about a king who lives in a castle. He has a baker called Adrian.The King always eats eggs. Adrian makes the king chicken eggs,goose eggs,duck eggs.Then he shouts More More More! The Next day he read in hisNewspaper that a dodos egg was spotted on an island.So he told Adrian toprepare the boat.To get to The island. ... Read more

Product Description
An evocation of beauty's often-surprising manifestations; even in the face of tragedy."Beauty isn't nice. Beauty isn't fair;" So, in part, states an epigraph for this stunning new collection, his thirteenth, by the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry (2000). First traversing betrayal and loss, Stephen Dunn then moves to speak of new love, with its attendant pleasures and questioning. The title poem, perhaps emblematic of the book as a whole, is evocative of beauty's often surprising manifestations even in the light of tragedy; as on that terrible day "when those silver planes came out of the perfect blue." Because beauty jars us, makes us look twice, it is as startling as a good poem, and as insistent. Fortunately, it is never too late to search for the right words for what we've seen, felt, endured. With quiet authority Dunn enacts what it feels like to be a particular man at a particular juncture of his life; struggling not to deny, but to name, then rename. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Not His Best
Different Hours, Dunn's Pulitzer Prize winning collection has been a staple on my bookshelf since it came out. Since then, I've hunted down most of his collections and love his work dearly, so I was very excited for this new colleciton to come out. Unfortunately, it did not live up to my expectations. His clear and simple language remains, but if fails to conjure up the same kind of emotional breadth that his previous work successfully does. I think that part of the problem may lie in the subject matter. Much of the poetry is more self-contained and more self-reflective than his previous work, and this in itself is not a terrible thing, but if the relationships or internal thought processes are not presented in an accessible manner, then any emotional intensity and beauty may be lost. Although this review may be overly harsh, the collection is still head and shoulders better than most of the terrible poetry being published today. It is, unfortunately, not the best that Mr. Dunn has produced. I am eagerly awaiting his next work.

A Big Disappointment
S.Dunn's world seems to have shrunk to the size of a walnut since he won the Pulitzer Prize.The poems in this new collection lack oxygen. They are without energy, without spark. Even thinking about the 9/11 tragedy fails to energize Dunn's self-absorbing mumblings.

The old saying is true: "A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package."

"Insistence" of Beautiful Poems
Dunn's incisive, gorgeous gifts for entering the uncertain landscapes of living have never felt laid so bare as they do in "Insistence of Beauty" or so very fearless.From poems that explore Achilles exposing his heels for the cause of love, or results of the `grudges' endemic to the human condition, or whether certain stories become ours to tell if they come to us through our beloved, to poems amazed that love seems to have a life all its own - how we carry on with the weight and loveliness of it, in spite of circumstance.There is nothing predictable about this book.The speakers of the poems seem as astonished and even as bewildered as any of us that life and beauty insist past what we believe cannot or should not be endured.That we become more and less than we ever thought possible.In a previous collection, Dunn's poem "Walking the Marshland" finishes "Praise refuge I thought, praise whatever you can."Rescue dogs and their handlers, feeling the full measures of awkwardness and self-interest beside grace and the pain of another, all of this is reason for praise - no matter how unsettling it all seems. ... Read more

Amazon.com Review
Like his poetry, Stephen Dunn's essays on poetry (andcreativity) are grounded and funny and accessible without cedingintelligence or audacity. There's no unnecessary loftiness inWalking Light. One essay addresses poetry's similarities tobasketball--"Perhaps basketball and poetry have just a few thingsin common, but the most important is the possibility oftranscendence.... What you want to be is in some kind offlow"--while another compares the knowledge and daring of poetsto that of gamblers. And yet another likens poets to ice travelers:"The farther we go in a poem or on the ice the fewer and fewerchoices we have, and we would want it no other way." Throughoutthe essays Dunn returns again and again to the need for surprise anddiscovery in a poem: "Your poem effectively begins," hewrites, "at the first moment you've surprised or startledyourself. Throw away everything that preceded that moment." Dunnillustrates his points with a terrific selection of poems by Goethe, RandallJarrell, EllenBryant Voight, Paul Celan, andothers. ... Read more

Product Description
James D. G. Dunn is one of the most prolific New Testament scholars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. And while a handful of scholars might have a list of publications to rival his own extensive publications list, none of them can claim to have set the agenda of scholarly study to the extent that Jimmy Dunn has done for a sustained period of time since the 1970s.

"The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins" is comprised of original essays exploring a topic that has held a prominent and distinctive place in the majority of Professor Dunn’s publications. Written by twenty-seven leading scholars, this singular volume probes deep into the nascent Christian communities and their writings and investigates the early Christians’ convictions concerning the Holy Spirit. Ranging widely through Scripture and across early church history, many of these essays introduce groundbreaking research in biblical studies, and some engage directly with Dunn’s work in the field.

Presenting some of the best new work in New Testament studies as well as celebrating a respected career, "The Holy Spirit and Christian Origins" will help to stimulate further discussion and reflection in the theological academy and in the Christian church — two sectors that Jimmy Dunn has consistently and passionately sought to straddle, nurture, and refresh.

Contributors:

Robert Banks, John M. G. Barclay, Richard Bauckham, Peder Borgen, David Catchpole, Gordon D. Fee, Victor Paul Furnish, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, Joel B. Green, Morna D. Hooker, Robert Jewett, Hermann Lichtenberger, Bruce W. Longenecker, Ulrich Luz, I. Howard Marshall, Scot McKnight, R. W. L. Moberly, Robert Morgan, J. Lionel North, Graham N. Stanton, Loren T. Stuckenbruck, Peter Stuhlmacher, Anthony C. Thiselton, Marianne Meye Thompson, Paul Trebilco, Max Turner, Alexander J. M. Wedderburn ... Read more

Product Description
all orders have customer tracking #. ... Read more