Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950-1999

by Philip Booth

With an economy of line and focus on nature that has deep roots in the New England traditions of Thoreau and Robert Frost , Philip Booth writes poetry that evokes crystalline images of sea, woods, and fields and explores the timeless themes of love, uncertainty, and responsibility. With many of Booth's early works now out of print, Lifelines presents a unique opportunity to become reacquainted with one of the major voices in contemporary American poetry.

Genres: Poetry

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Philip Booth is a Fellow of the Academy of American Poets and has been honored by Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. The poem "Crossing" appeared in his first book, Letter from a Distant Land. Of his inspiration for the poem, he says, "I grew up in White River Junction, Vermont, where the White River and the Connecticut River come together. Many, many trains come down the river valley, traveling from Montreal to Boston, on to New Haven and beyond. The real crossing of this poem, though, is in Brunswick, Maine."


Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Nick Milinazzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing answers to
nothing. Nothing
else. The question
is not how to outlive
life, but how
-- in the time we're
possessed by -- to face
the raw beauty of being.

As this collection spans nearly 50 years, it encompasses the author's entire career. The majority of his work focuses on life in the state of Maine: the seas, the seasons, and especially, the nature. These love letters to his home are not in any way bad, but they fill a very small niche audience. Where I think he really shines is when he expands his subjects to greater topics: man, life, love. There exists a handful of rather profound poems within this collection that are worthy enough of praise. A notable beginning to one piece is as follows:

Rule One of all
rules one:
No one ever knows
how much another hurts.

[A.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few poems withstanding, I really struggled to connect with Phillip Booth. Lifelines is a collection of selected poems from his published works spanning almost 50 years - 1950 thru 1999. I enjoyed the poetry of his later works - Selves, Pairs and Lifelines - the most.

Booth was a student of Robert Frost, and like Frost, draws upon his experience of daily living (for him, in Maine) and interacting with people and nature - boating, hunting, winters, the coastline. But reading him, I rarely grasped either the nature he saw or what he was trying to express, his words seemingly as remote as the state in which he lives.

That said, here is a poem that greatly touched me called "Garden" from his book, Selves:

GARDEN

Went to a man in
his patch of garden.

Knew his brother was
in for surgery

over to the V.A.
Heard at the store

his sister, the
one that he'd

kept home forever,
died. Heard he

had to shoot his
dog the same day.

Told him I was
sorry, what

could I say. He
never spoke of the

sister; said when
he got up this

morning he saw
his dog couldn't,

said, she was
parallel from

the waist down.
His old eyes

wanted tears; mine
felt them come. Could

feel him feeling
how Addie was

parallel, up
in her head, from

when she was
born. He bent,

of a sudden,
folded himself

to grab some
old broccoli out

of his patch. And
stayed down, half-

kneeling. I tried
to stay, looking

around the garden
and, over the edge

of the world, out
at all the old sky.

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite, most familiar book of poetry.