Alive Together: New and Selected Poems

by Lisel Mueller

Book Overview

In a collection of writing that represents 35 years of her writing life, Lisel Mueller explores a range of subjects which include her cultural and family history, and reflect her fascination with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807121282
• ISBN13: 9780807121283
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

for the poetry lover

This book of poetry won the Pulitzer Prize. She writes about a variety of topics, which makes her writing so easily accessible depending on whatever mood you're in or what you want to read. Her poetry about birds is particularly detailed and lovely. As is the poetry about her mother, about death, abuse, about relationships...I can't imagine you'd be disappointed. Support POETS, support your own imagination and dreams - buy this book -- add this to your collection or give it as a gift. The title poem, Alive Together, is superb. Some other favorites: The Blind Leading the Blind, Why I need the Birds, When I am Asked, Things, Mirrors, Missing the Dead, and JOY. here's a bit of When I am Asked: when I am asked/how I began writing poems, I talk about the indifference of nature. It was soon after my mother died, a brilliant June day, everything blooming. I sat on a gray stone bench/ringed with the ingenue faces/of pink and white impatiens/and placed my grief/in the mouth of language, the only thing that would grieve with me. RECOMMENDED!

This is essential poetry.

I treasure this book. It is beautiful, clear, and profound. Mueller's words and perspective awaken me with each reading. Robyn Johnson

This poet touches me where I didn't know I lived.

I am amazed by her power. In her hands, words spring to life and life springs to words. Her mind plants the living experience in a kiss on the hand and flings it to her audience like affectionate royalty waving to an attentive crowd. She was born in Hamburg, Germany and the "Curriculum Vitae" poem in this volume beautifully articulates her immigration to the United States and her life here. Mueller was recently awarded one of the largest prizes in literature, the 2002 Ruth Lilly Prize -- $100,000.00. Her poetry is worth that, and more. Her Mother's death "hurt" her into poetry, she writes here, and yet the observations she gives through these poems are pure redemption. What she experiences is what we all know, and she offers it to us with reverence and respect in sparkling language of pure gold.When she stumbles on the fact of aging: "One day," she writes, "on a crowded elevator, everyone's face was younger than mine. . . .The brilliant days and nights are breathless in their hurry."I love everything she's written and eagerly wait for more.One short poem just to treat you to an example of what poetry can be:"EX MACHINA"My word processor does not know Shakespeare. It balks at ripeness, stops me at Othello and Desdemona. They are not in its vocabulary. On the other hand it does not question arrogance and power, accepts betrayal, jealousy and grief, uncomprehending. They are on the list. "I am reminded of the face of the young killer on the screen the other night. He knew the words gun and crime and prison. He even knew the word guilty, but when he said it, his eyes were blank." Buy this book -- and all her books if you can find them. Keep them nearby so you can reach into a poem when you need to be reminded what living is for.

Mueller Required Reading

Lisel Mueller is hands down one of the contemporary masters of the free verse form. In her second language she writes of exile, reclamation, home, beauty. She excels at the persona poem, writing devastating sequences on (among others) Hellen Keller, Patty Hearst, Monet, Schumann, Bach, Brendel, and Mary Shelly. This New and Selected will lead your straight to Mueller's individual collections, worth every penny.

Extraordinary

If you are looking for one poem about relationships, "Alive Together" is the one. And with the rest of the poems in this amazing collection you'll find more truth, beauty and life. Get this book. Read this book. Send "Alive Together" to your significant other.