Books
WORKaDAY
TWO STAR GENERAL
TWO STAR GENERAL
Good poets often discover poetry—and reveal it— in the most unlikely places. “Progress,” “Commuting,” and “Business Trip to Orlando” may seem like unpromising titles (let alone subjects) for successful poems. Yet with his impeccable ear for the music of the language of the workplace (that “system/of cog and gritty wheel”), and an unerri
Good poets often discover poetry—and reveal it— in the most unlikely places. “Progress,” “Commuting,” and “Business Trip to Orlando” may seem like unpromising titles (let alone subjects) for successful poems. Yet with his impeccable ear for the music of the language of the workplace (that “system/of cog and gritty wheel”), and an unerring instinct for the human center of his subject (“This is/how the system stays intact:/someone gets on, someone/else gets off”), Grey Held has created a rare thing: a singularly unified and intelligent book filled with poems that are consistently gratifying to read, surprisingly inventive, witty, seductive, and moving.
—Lloyd Schwartz
TWO STAR GENERAL
TWO STAR GENERAL
TWO STAR GENERAL
Two-Star General brings us the long term, and deeply personal consequences of war, and shows us that even for the ostensible victors, there are hidden wounds and irreparable losses. The general of the book’s title--based in part on Held’s father who was Chief of Supply for the Pacific during World War II—has a military mindset that shap
Two-Star General brings us the long term, and deeply personal consequences of war, and shows us that even for the ostensible victors, there are hidden wounds and irreparable losses. The general of the book’s title--based in part on Held’s father who was Chief of Supply for the Pacific during World War II—has a military mindset that shapes the relationship between father and poet. In lines that are direct and unsentimental, these poems follow the poet as he comes of age and establishes his own complex relationship to stoicism and emotion. And yet these are not simply poems of familial struggle or generational dispute. Running throughout the book is a note of tender, almost elegiac sadness that helps us see how father and son have both been shaped by the world at war. Held helps us realize, in the end, that we all have that in common.
—Fred Marchant
SPILLED MILK
TWO STAR GENERAL
SPILLED MILK
“It’s difficult to think of a male poet who focuses so completely and perceptively on domestic life as Grey Held does in his aptly titled second book, Spilled Milk. First as father, then as husband, Held invites us into his home life, from which he draws carefully chosen details and anecdotes that create an emotionally complex and deepl
“It’s difficult to think of a male poet who focuses so completely and perceptively on domestic life as Grey Held does in his aptly titled second book, Spilled Milk. First as father, then as husband, Held invites us into his home life, from which he draws carefully chosen details and anecdotes that create an emotionally complex and deeply moving account of the vicissitudes of marriage and family.” –Martha Collins
“In these clear, precise poems, Grey Held explores father/son/family relationships in language notable for its humility and grace. His domesticity is an invitation to meditate on the elegant mysteries of the garden, and of mature love. In an age overwrought with 'experimental language' and high abstraction, he brings us a poetic of the heart and hearth and inviting humility, for which I am deeply grateful.”
—Sam Hamill