Galway Kinnell
Birth date: February 01, 1927
Galway Kinnell's Books
lover, drinker, thief, writer, in no particular order.
(Mostly) quiet poems of memory and loss, spiced with Kinnellisms like:"It engraves sounds into paper and fills them with pounded nutgall."and, in the midst of a poem about a cellist:"... In a back alley a cat opens its pink-ceilinged mouth, gets nettedin full yowl, clubbed, bagged, bicycled off, hag...
I've read and reread Galway Kinnell's poetry over the years, and although I bring no scholar's claim to his work, I can attest to the power of his words. Kinnell's words show an honest, earthy, man who is open to the world around him.I've often used the word "earthy" to describe Kinnell's work, but ...
For some reason I didn't find a lot to latch onto in this collection. Rare, I guess, given how much I like all his other collections. It says more about me than the book. "Neverland" is incredible. I'm going to check back in with this book in 5-10 years.
I like Part I the best ("The Road Between Here and There", "The Olive Wood Fire", "Lake Memphramagog"). The rest was just OK for me.