{"product_id":"blessed-as-we-were-late-selected-and-new-poems-2000-2018-9781324064510","title":"Blessed as We Were: Late Selected and New Poems, 2000-2018","description":"\u003cp\u003eFor five decades, Gerald Stern has been writing his own brand of expansive, deep-down American poetry. Now in his nineties, this \"sometimes comic, sometimes tragic visionary\" (Edward Hirsch) engages a lifetime of memories in his poems, blending philosophical, wide-ranging intellect with boisterous wit.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMemory unites the poems in \u003cem\u003eBlessed as We Were\u003c\/em\u003e, which reach back through seven collections written over almost two decades. Stern explores casual miracles, relationships, and the natural world in \u003cem\u003eLast Blue\u003c\/em\u003e (2000); offers a satirical and redemptive vision in \u003cem\u003eEverything Is Burning\u003c\/em\u003e (2005) and \u003cem\u003eSave the Last Dance\u003c\/em\u003e (2008); meditates on the metamorphosis of aging in \u003cem\u003eIn Beauty Bright\u003c\/em\u003e (2012); and captures the sensual joys of life--even when they are far in the past--in the wistful love poems and elegies of \u003cem\u003eGalaxy Love\u003c\/em\u003e (2017). The volume concludes with over two dozen new poems that combine the metaphysical with the domestic, from the passage of time and the cost of love to the profound banality of cardboard and its uses.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith his characteristic exuberant, oracular voice animating every line, Stern reminds us why he is one of the great American poets, one who has long \"been telling us that the best way to live is not so much for poetry, but through poetry\" (\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50390430253330,"sku":"9781324064510","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_938b12fc-6080-4a1d-aef3-f05c2be46c07.jpg?v=1728947752","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/blessed-as-we-were-late-selected-and-new-poems-2000-2018-9781324064510","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}