From the Meadow

By Peter Everwine

For nearly five decades, readers have been enthralled and enchanted by Peter Everwine's calmly dazzling poems. He's never been a writer clearly aligned with any single school or style, yet adherents of all schools and styles admire his graceful turns of phrase and intense vision. From the Meadow features selections from four previous collections, along with a group of new works. The poems, which include Everwine's deft translations from Hebrew and interpretations from Nahuatl, vibrate with the intensity of small truths distilled to their very essences.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822958449
• ISBN13: 9780822958444
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 100 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The View from Mature Meadows

There is in me, always, you and the absence of you. There is in me, always that road that leads to a field of flowers we once knew Peter Everwine's poems are beautiful recollections of a life lived and the subtle promptings of memories we have yet to experience. I love reading poetry by men who have been keen observers of their own lives and the lives of others. In observing and revealing, Peter shows a side of men that is rare and beautiful and intoxicatingly mature. In Perhaps It's As You Say, he explores stars, dry grasses gathering a honey light and houses across fields that disappear into cottonwoods by dry creeks. And then, quite profoundly he suddenly says: "Meet me there." Instinctively, we seem to know exactly what he is talking about because the poem not only comforts, but it gives hope. The Marsh, New Year's Day exposes hidden fears as age steals away the lovers in men's lives and Peter sees himself following in the footsteps of what these men around him are becoming. Yet, I feel he could never become the men dying like rainbows because of his inner light and ability to observe while others walk blind. Peter Everwine's painting of his solitude in, How to Handle It, made me almost nostalgic. Speech is one thing; this solitude, another: books on the table, my lamp at night throwing a small sooty glare into the wind's teeth Although I have to say that the poem: "I Dreamt" is perhaps the most meaningful to me in this collection of wisdom mingled with remembrance of experience's learned and moments observed. In this poem he enters a room filled with pens and the entire poem seems to speak of loving the sorrow or at times pain of life that leads to creation/writing. I will be thinking about this poem for some time because I think it has hidden truths. Peter Everwine's translation of The Condition has a stunning line about pomegranates. It is such a beautiful image and if you have ever seen the countless seeds inside a pomegranate you can't help but realize the stunning statement nine words can make. ~The Rebecca Review