Liver

by Charles Harper Webb

Book Overview

The poems in Liver come at the reader from many angles at once, like a whirlwind or a warm shower. Charles Harper Webb is a poet of contradictions: humor and heartbreak, depth and accessibility, playfulness and seriousness, raw energy and careful craft. His poems glorify the spirit, but also the flesh, exemplified by the liver, the "organ whose name contains the injunction Live ... great One-Who-Lives, so we can too." Even at their darkest,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299165744
• ISBN13: 9780299165741
• Release Date: September 1999
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Everyman's poetry

"Mom," my daughter with the fancy schmancy education says, "ya gotta read Charles Harper Webb's poetry. It's really great. Ya gotta read it." Pfffftttt. Young people. What do they know? Consider the music they listen to.... But... she is a poet herself, so I decide to order Liver. (Please--is it not an awful title for a collection of poems? But, dear reader, it fits....) And I love this collection. And Webb becomes one of my favorites. Why? It's poetry--how the heck should I know? Because he sees the brevity of this absurd whirl around the merry-go-round we call life and renders that ride in simple yet profound terms. Trust me; buy the book. And after you love it, order Tulip Farms and Leper Colonies. You'll love that one, too.

A good read both funny and provocative--unusual.e

Charles Webb is a poet of surprising versatility who has the sense and timing of the comedy stand-up performer but, just when one accepts his comedic self, touches one's heart with his thoughtful,"Inheritance" and "Chapel in the Pines" and "Floating Loin," as well as the title poem "Liver."