Deep Light: New and Selected Poems, 1987-2007

by Rebecca McClanahan

Deep New and Selected Poems 1987-2007 is the fifth collection of poems by Rebecca McClanahan. Deep Light is not a poetry collection, if collection implies merely a gathering of similar objects. Nor is it a chronological compilation of work from the author's previous books. The poems in Deep Light have been selected and arranged to create a continuous, unified text. Like McClanahan's description of gray doves "tipping across the gravel / their shadows pumping before them," the poems move forward in an alternating dance of light and shade. In the brightest places of our world, suggests this poet, grief and loss cast their shadows. But even in the darkest places, light makes its way.

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

Published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book of poetry, but as it spans a writing period of twenty years, sometimes you do have to sift through for the really stand out pieces. And they are in there. Some of McClanahan's work is beautiful and breathtaking. Some of it, on the other hand, seems a bit more like filler.

One of the most innovative, and much commented upon, elements of this book is the way the poems are grouped together by theme as opposed to being presented chronologically. Which works for the collection as a whole, whenever it is not also working against it. You don't get the sense of the writers' gradual maturity progressing over time, as any section may include poems from both her early and later periods. And, although grouping the poems by subject and theme makes for a smooth reading experience, it does become more evident when certain sentiments (lamenting a lack of children), or even similar lines (nephew that is not my son), pop up in multiple poems.

But it is worth the price of admission for poems like "Enough," for the light hearted "Regrets Only" and for the imagery of darkness and light that weave sublimely in and out each of the poems.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rebecca McClanahan's book is simply gorgeous. I actually found myself holding my breath as I read some of her pieces. Oh...that I could write like she does!

The poems in this collection are arranged in an incredibly interesting and fresh way--neither chronology nor subject matter holds them together. Instead, they flow from one to another like a single meditation on life, death, fidelity, aging, loneliness--all the "big" topics of human existence--a meditation that is real, down-to-earth, accessible and heartfelt.

I say that I wish I could write like her because she accomplishes with seeming ease, things I struggle to do in my own work, like weaving mythology and religion into the everyday, belief into fact, the heroic into the mundane. Most of all, however, I was bewitched by her interest in light and shadow. As a visual artist as well as a writer, light and its absence has been a small obsession with me. I admired greatly the manner in which McClanahan used the metaphor.

This is simply a stunning book. I highly recommend it.

[Pris Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is breathtaking! Rebecca McClanahan writes with an intimacy of self that allows the reader to feel part of her poems and with the grace of an assured, accomplished poet. She is one of those amazing poets whom I feel both poets and nonpoets will enjoy. I keep her book nearby to pull out and reread poems or passages from poems.

[Belle Deks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book.