Interglacial: New and Selected Poems & Aphorisms

by James Richardson

This book gathers under one roof poems from all of Richardson’s earlier collections, a number of which are out of print: Reservations (1977), Second Guesses (1984), As If(1992), A Suite for Lucretians (1999), How Things Are (2000), and Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays (2001), as well as a large selection of new poems and aphorisms.

A distillation of three decades of work, Interglacial will introduce this poet to a new generation of readers. Richardson fans will be pleased to discover early poems long out of print, and to see this poet’s work in a larger, retrospective context.

Praise for Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays:

“Not since the appearance of W.S. Merwin’s translations and adaptations of aphorisms in Asian Figures, some thirty years ago, has an American poet put down so much delightful and compelling wisdom.”—Daryl Scroggins in American Literary Review

“Page after page there is the exciting sense of something hidden and true coming to light, bringing with it a sense of delighted recognition and discovery for the reader, and articulated in a way that has never quite been done before. I can think of no deeper pleasure a work can bring.”—Laurie Sheck

“Vectors is the kind of book you read, reread, thumb through, and pick up several extra copies because you want to share the joy you found in perusing it with friends.”—Scott Hightower in Barrow Street

James Richardson was born in 1950, and is the author of six books of poetry and three critical studies. The recipient of the Cecil Hemley and Robert H. Winner Prizes from the Poetry Society of America and fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, he is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Princeton University.

Genres: Poetry

253 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

About the author

This is the disambiguation page for otherwise unseparated authors publishing as James Richardson.

Reviews

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not typically a fan of collected poems volumes. I prefer the concise, tight collections, the selection of poems grouped by narrative or tone. I know that it isn't particularly intellectual of me, but the Collected Works tomes of authors tend to make me well, bored. (You can bet your soul that if I were to ever become famous enough to have a Collected Poems published, that I would be singing its praises from the roofs.)

That said, This volume held my interest through and through. Richardson's voice is consistently strong and insightful. Rereading his earlier aphorisms, they still ring true, quietly so. His poems flow softly into one another - there is no distinct hard difference between the poems pulled from different books, though you can see change and growth over the course of the collection. (I could see that being construed as a negative but for me it was a very positive aspect...)

I will say that the newer aphorisms for this volume strayed closer to the cliché than his earlier work, in my opinion. But that really is my only complaint with this volume.

If you've ever enjoyed a James Richardson book, this is definitely worth picking up. If you've never read him, it is a fantastic starting point - even if you don't typically enjoy the big collected tomes.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

"....yet once i braked, downshifted, and we bowed
an instant in the same direction."