The One-Strand River

Poems, 1994-2007

Nonfiction, Entertainment, Drama, Anthologies, Fiction & Literature, Poetry, American, Literary
Cover of the book The One-Strand River by Richard Kenney, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Richard Kenney ISBN: 9780307497154
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Publication: October 3, 2012
Imprint: Knopf Language: English
Author: Richard Kenney
ISBN: 9780307497154
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication: October 3, 2012
Imprint: Knopf
Language: English

Fourteen years after his last book of poems, we have a glorious new volume from Richard Kenney, who has been hailed by The New York Review of Books as “one of the most gifted and multifaceted and original of American poets.”

In The One-Strand River, Kenney has tales to tell—of loves, births, and confounding politics—in lively, quicksilver language that surprises at every turn. We meet the poet as a middle-aged husband walking the dog, confiding, “Churlish / thoughts bedevil me, often. Sunshine; girls / half my age; the future; unseen perishing / armies.” He swings between surreal dawn vistas and the unsettling sight of seventh-grade girls circling his teenage son; between the pleasure of a New Year’s celebration “with Nipperkin” and—striking a note that is rare in contemporary poetry—satirical attack, with an eye on the news of the day. A master of many tones, Kenney recalls a nursery rhyme in the title poem—“Gray goose and gander/ How long have we together?”—and ponders the “one-strand river” that is the sea, with its one encircling shore and its tidal pull on both the landscape and the human heart.

Kenney is never a confessional poet, yet we meet a powerful mind here—that of a man who is always responding to provocations seen and unseen, taking pleasure in the possibilities of words themselves, tossing them up into the daily storm of our vexations and our perilous happiness.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Fourteen years after his last book of poems, we have a glorious new volume from Richard Kenney, who has been hailed by The New York Review of Books as “one of the most gifted and multifaceted and original of American poets.”

In The One-Strand River, Kenney has tales to tell—of loves, births, and confounding politics—in lively, quicksilver language that surprises at every turn. We meet the poet as a middle-aged husband walking the dog, confiding, “Churlish / thoughts bedevil me, often. Sunshine; girls / half my age; the future; unseen perishing / armies.” He swings between surreal dawn vistas and the unsettling sight of seventh-grade girls circling his teenage son; between the pleasure of a New Year’s celebration “with Nipperkin” and—striking a note that is rare in contemporary poetry—satirical attack, with an eye on the news of the day. A master of many tones, Kenney recalls a nursery rhyme in the title poem—“Gray goose and gander/ How long have we together?”—and ponders the “one-strand river” that is the sea, with its one encircling shore and its tidal pull on both the landscape and the human heart.

Kenney is never a confessional poet, yet we meet a powerful mind here—that of a man who is always responding to provocations seen and unseen, taking pleasure in the possibilities of words themselves, tossing them up into the daily storm of our vexations and our perilous happiness.

More books from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Cover of the book Blowguns and Bouncing Pigs: Traditional Toymaking by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Therapeutic Touch by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book The Epicure's Lament by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Breakfast at Tiffany's by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Stormy Weather by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Inferno by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Afterlife by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Critical Mass by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book The Book of Ephraim by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Original Bliss by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book The Dawn Patrol by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book Refusing Heaven by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book The Night In Question by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book The Visiting Privilege by Richard Kenney
Cover of the book The Science of Leonardo by Richard Kenney
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy