"This is a fabulous book. An authoritative, scholarly history and an impassioned look at the poet's growth and development. It's so pleasing to get the poet's biography in this medium- both the Mrs. Aime classroom sequences and the details of his life in 301 poems. I'm especially moved by the later poems and their sense of mortality, which Grapes seems to be taking with equanimity- sadness, but also an exasperated, excited curiosity. And in the context of his full life, lived so vividly, these struggling times can be viewed ...
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"This is a fabulous book. An authoritative, scholarly history and an impassioned look at the poet's growth and development. It's so pleasing to get the poet's biography in this medium- both the Mrs. Aime classroom sequences and the details of his life in 301 poems. I'm especially moved by the later poems and their sense of mortality, which Grapes seems to be taking with equanimity- sadness, but also an exasperated, excited curiosity. And in the context of his full life, lived so vividly, these struggling times can be viewed as an interesting, intriguing part. I think of many of the poems in this context - the bitter apple eaten to the core, his untragic loss of cliches, his command to "wake me when it's over." Jack's full sweep of haiku history kept conjuring images of 19th century landscape paintings. I was reminded of the artists' painterly way of capturing the immensity of their subject - the mountains, valleys, rivers and rocks - a single canvas that seemingly stands for everything. This book is a truly magisterial opus." - Lee Perron (author of Celtic Light and Fourteen Poems of Transparence)
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