Life slows to a profound stillness in this pastoral village that is surrounded by sun, mountain and river.  This is what I first noticed when reading Louise Gluck’s most recent collection of poems, A Village Life.   Gluck creates this sense of stillness through both her jagged, sinuous lines and isolated imagery; these intensify the dark epiphanies that intrude into our lives in relation to nature and time.

It’s very dark today; through the rain,

the mountain isn’t visible.  The only sound

is rain, driving life underground.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

Nothing proves I’m alive.

There is only the rain, the rain is endless.

Such isolated and tragic visions permeate her poems yet they always make readers feel a profound sense of beauty and awe.  This is why Louise Gluck is one of our most respected and talented lyric poets working today.  A Village Life is her eleventh collection of poems.

 Reviewed by Todd P.

A Village Life: Poems (Hardcover)

By Louise Gluck

$23.00

ISBN-13: 9780374283742
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 09/01/2009

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