Description

Book Synopsis


“There are only two passions in art; there are love and hate—with endless modifications.”—Theodore Roethke


At his death, Theodore Roethke left behind 277 spiral notebooks full of poetry fragments, aphorisms, jokes, memos, journal entries, random phrases, bits of dialogue, commentary, and fugitive miscellany. Within these notebooks, Roethke allowed his mind to rove freely, moment by moment, moving from the practical to the transcendental, from the halting to the sublime.


Fellow poet and colleague David Wagoner distilled these notebooks—twelve linear feet of bookshelf—into an energetic, wise, and rollicking collection that shows Roethke to be one of the truly phenomenal creative sources in American poetry.


From “A Psychic Janitor”:


I’m sick of fumbling, furtive, disorganized minds like bad lawyers trying to make too many points that this is an age of criticism: and these, mind you, tin-eared punks who couldn’t tell a poem from an old boot if a gun were put to their heads . . .
Cover art by United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.

Straw for the Fire: From the Notebooks of

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    A Paperback / softback by Theodore Roethke, David Wagoner

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      Publisher: Copper Canyon Press,U.S.
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 14/12/2006
      ISBN13: 9781556592485, 978-1556592485
      ISBN10: 1556592485

      Description

      Book Synopsis


      “There are only two passions in art; there are love and hate—with endless modifications.”—Theodore Roethke


      At his death, Theodore Roethke left behind 277 spiral notebooks full of poetry fragments, aphorisms, jokes, memos, journal entries, random phrases, bits of dialogue, commentary, and fugitive miscellany. Within these notebooks, Roethke allowed his mind to rove freely, moment by moment, moving from the practical to the transcendental, from the halting to the sublime.


      Fellow poet and colleague David Wagoner distilled these notebooks—twelve linear feet of bookshelf—into an energetic, wise, and rollicking collection that shows Roethke to be one of the truly phenomenal creative sources in American poetry.


      From “A Psychic Janitor”:


      I’m sick of fumbling, furtive, disorganized minds like bad lawyers trying to make too many points that this is an age of criticism: and these, mind you, tin-eared punks who couldn’t tell a poem from an old boot if a gun were put to their heads . . .
      Cover art by United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.

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