Sixty Poems, (2008), Charles SimicHere are sixty of Charles Simic's best known poems, collected to celebrate his appointment as the fifteenth Poet Laureate of the United States.The MelonThere was a melon fresh from the gardenSo ripe the knife slurpedAs it cut it into six slices.The children were going back to school.Their mother, passing our paper plates,Would not like to see the leaves fall.I remember a hornet, too, that flew inThrough the open windowMad to taste the sweet fruitWhile we ducked

3.5 starsAn interesting selection of Simic’s best poems. Imaginative, often surreal or sarcastic, socially and politically engaged. I can’t say I enjoyed all of them, but there’s definitely lots of food for thought and images and scenes to return to. ***Dear spectres, I don’t even believeYou are here, so how is itYou’re making me comprehendThings I would rather not know yet?(from Ghosts)

Charles Simic's poetry is one that I never tire of, and can always find something to appreciate.

‘A dog trying to write a poem on why he barks,That’s me, dear reader!’‘Comedy and tragedy are never far from one another,’ Charles Simic, former US Poet Laureate (2007-2008), says in a recent interview with Granta magazine, wonderfully highlighting the thin balance of bottom-of-a-bottle darkness and glorious brightness that spread forth from each of his finely tuned poems. Born in Belgrade in 1938, Simic carried with him his memories of war-torn Europe when he immigrated to the United States at

IN THE LIBRARYfor OctavioThere's a book calledA Dictionary of Angels.No one had opened it in fifty years,I know, because when I did,The covers creaked, the pagesCrumbled. There I discoveredThe angels were once as plentifulAs species of flies.The sky at duskUsed to be thick with them.You had to wave both armsJust to keep them away.Now the sun is shiningThrough the tall windows.The library is a quiet place.Angels and gods huddledIn dark unopened books.The great secret liesOn some shelf Miss JonesP...

This book is a way better book than its title would suggest, and way more coherent as well.  As far as reasons for the existence of this best-of collection [1], this book has a worthwhile one, in that it is a collection of poems that was made out of several of the author's other books of poetry after he was chosen as the poet laureate of the United States.  This is not a bad reason to make a book.  In fact, it is a good reason to make a compilation of poetry, because poetry in general seems to b...

Rocky was a regular guy, a loyal friend.The trouble was he was only a cat. He was black except for the white gloves he wore.He played the piano in the parlorBy walking over its keys back and forth.

Inspired by Simic's essay about the dream-like reality he inhabits when suffering insomnia, I was curious to see how this would translate into poetry, about which I have little feeling and even less knowledge. I read and re-read this book collection back in July, and I’d meant to write an account at that time, but it’s now six months later, and I’ve got next to no recollection of any single poem, only a general sense that it was all readable, even comprehensible in the way that poetry is, usuall...

Best of all is to be idle,And especially on a Thursday,And to sip wine while studying the light:The way it ages, yellows, turns ashenAnd then hesitates foreverOn the threshold of the nightThat could be bringing the first frost.It’s good to have a woman around just then,And two is even better.Let them whisper to each otherAnd eye you with a smirk.Let them roll up their sleeves and unbutton their shirts a bitAs this fine old twilight deserves,And the small schoolboyWho has come home to a room almo...

Late SeptemberThe mail truck goes down the coastCarrying a single letter.At the end of a long pierThe bored seagull lifts a leg now and thenAnd forgets to put it down.There is a menace in the airOf tragedies in the making.Last night you thought you heard televisionIn the house next door.You were sure it was some newHorror they were reporting,So you went out to find out.Barefoot, wearing just shorts.It was only the sea sounding wearyAfter so many lifetimesOf pretending to be rushing off somewhere...

This collection of sixty poems is selected out of previous books and tend to showcase his development over the years. The books are intense with experience a offer a good variety of opinions, settings, and emotions.

Dear specters, I don't even believeYou are here, so how is itYou're making me comprehendThings I would rather not know just yet?-Charles Simic, "Ghosts"

Six Half-Articulated Notes While Reading Sixty Poems by Charles Simic:1) A progression/development in the short selections from nine selections.2) Simic's induction into the Literary Hall of Fame known as Poet Laureate has no doubt placed him on the collapsing chair above a tank of water (and a long, eager line wants a shot!).3) One weakness is an impulse to conclude the earliest selections in Sixty Poems with an exaggerated flourish.4) A number of statements structured: "[Noun:] is..." (over-re...

My four-star rating is based mostly on my love for this phrase: "I believe in the soul. So far, / it hasn't made much difference."

Rating: Low 4.Favorites:"Club Midnight""Mummy's Curse""Description of a Lost Thing"Happiness, you are the bright red liningOf the dark winter coatGrief wears inside out.- "Romantic Sonnet"I believe in the soul; so farIt hasn't made much difference.- "The Old World"Like the sound of eyebrowsRaised by a villainIn a silent movie.- "The Toy"

i think when i am disappointed by simic (which happens!) it's because i want him to be more like raoul, which i realize is ridiculous cuz then what would raoul be? but yknow. i think i liked best the poems in this from hotel insomnia (total there are excerpts from i think 9 books), which i don't have: to-read!i like him best when he's blood, fear, darkness, awkward & quiet physicality. the people very small but viewed so close, shapes rendered sweetly/sadly tragicomic, shades more-or-less real t...

The world informs me,like a distracted conductortoo busy to answer my questionif this is the right stop,that this isn't the book of his I should read.'This is what they had,' I say.Before I can explain how I liked itbut didn't love it,They turn their back, and I'm left to ponder the rail map.I'd have liked to tell of the pockets of verse stuffed into spare cornersthat thrilled me like little elsebut that I tired ofvast dusty plains of women and food.Much like Spain.But he had already moved on,ha...

Love Simic's imaginative, economical prose. My favorites here were his poems from the Hotel Insomnia collection. He is able to confront the dark parts of childhood without becoming completely maudlin.

This is my second attempt at reading Simic, and this time I found myself more capable of entering his poetic world. His poems are strange and rich, often dramatic little tales, haunted landscapes and interiors where objects are personified and opaque. The cumulative effect of reading Simic's poems is to become familiar with this world, and to begin to recognize some of the familiar players, such as the clock, the mirror, the empty room, the unmade bed, the stranger on the street, mortality and i...

I wasn't sure at first, but as the years progressed Simic's work did as well. the moments that he highlights are both relevant and touching, with a voice that you find yourself drawn to. an enjoyable, quick read.