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Hell, I Love Everybody: The Essential James Tate: Poems – The 'Poet of Possibilities' Collection of Brilliant Contemporary American Poetry, with Foreword by Terrance Hayes
An essential collection of James Tate’s extraordinary poems that will captivate today’s readers, with a foreword by Terrance Hayes Celebrating James Tate’s work as it transcends convention, time, and everything that tells us, “No, you can’t do that,” Hell, I Love Everybody gives us the poet at his best, his most intimate, hopeful, inventive, and brilliant. John Ashbery called Tate the “poet of possibilities,” and this collection records forays into possibilities for American poetry’s future. With a foreword by Terrance Hayes, it is sure to give readers new and old a lasting collection of favorites.
- GenresPoetry
112 pages, Paperback
Published November 7, 2023
2 people are currently reading
158 people want to read
About the author
James Tate
176 books129 followersJames Vincent Tate was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He taught creative writing at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, and at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he worked since 1971. He was a member of the poetry faculty at the MFA Program for Poets & Writers, along with Dara Wier and Peter Gizzi.
Dudley Fitts selected Tate's first book of poems, The Lost Pilot (1967) for the Yale Series of Younger Poets while Tate was still a student at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; Fitts praised Tate's writing for its "natural grace." Despite the early praise he received Tate alienated some of his fans in the seventies with a series of poetry collections that grew more and more strange.
He published two books of prose, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee (2001) and The Route as Briefed (1999). His awards include a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, a Pulitzer Prize in poetry, a National Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Tate's writing style is difficult to describe, but has been identified with the postmodernist and neo-surrealist movements. He has been known to play with phrases culled from news items, history, anecdotes, or common speech; later cutting, pasting, and assembling such divergent material into tightly woven compositions that reveal bizarre and surreal insights into the absurdity of human nature.
Dudley Fitts selected Tate's first book of poems, The Lost Pilot (1967) for the Yale Series of Younger Poets while Tate was still a student at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop; Fitts praised Tate's writing for its "natural grace." Despite the early praise he received Tate alienated some of his fans in the seventies with a series of poetry collections that grew more and more strange.
He published two books of prose, Dreams of a Robot Dancing Bee (2001) and The Route as Briefed (1999). His awards include a National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Wallace Stevens Award, a Pulitzer Prize in poetry, a National Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.
Tate's writing style is difficult to describe, but has been identified with the postmodernist and neo-surrealist movements. He has been known to play with phrases culled from news items, history, anecdotes, or common speech; later cutting, pasting, and assembling such divergent material into tightly woven compositions that reveal bizarre and surreal insights into the absurdity of human nature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
August 19, 2023
Day 19 of #TheSealeyChallenge 2023. Hell, I l Love Everybody by James Tate published by Ecco.
@SealeyChallenge @eccobooks #JamesTate
#thesealeychallenge2023 #sealeychallenge #poetry
“The subtextual pang you find in a Jim Tate line, a deadpan panic, creeps into the echoes.” Thanks to @netgalley for the sneak peak.
Some of my favorite moments:
I am trying to pry open your casket with this burning snowflake.
My family’s obviously done nothing since the beginning of time. They invented poverty and bad taste and getting by and taking it from the boss.
I was in a dream state and this was causing a problem with the traffic.
A book can move from room to room without anyone touching it.
The wind makes a salad of the countryside and he who is so hungry sits down but refuses to eat greens.
Some people go their whole lives without ever writing a single poem.
@SealeyChallenge @eccobooks #JamesTate
#thesealeychallenge2023 #sealeychallenge #poetry
“The subtextual pang you find in a Jim Tate line, a deadpan panic, creeps into the echoes.” Thanks to @netgalley for the sneak peak.
Some of my favorite moments:
I am trying to pry open your casket with this burning snowflake.
My family’s obviously done nothing since the beginning of time. They invented poverty and bad taste and getting by and taking it from the boss.
I was in a dream state and this was causing a problem with the traffic.
A book can move from room to room without anyone touching it.
The wind makes a salad of the countryside and he who is so hungry sits down but refuses to eat greens.
Some people go their whole lives without ever writing a single poem.
August 16, 2025
These are my new favorite poems. I read the whole book out loud, and I read it well, which I don’t usually do. It was as if I had written them myself, but of course I didn’t, because if I did I’d be a poet.
April 25, 2025
Perfect collection. Masterful and nothing should be changed. And anyone who disagrees is wrong and has terrible taste, fundamentally
March 11, 2024
Sometimes I think there is an obsession in poetry to remove the "I". I also think there is an obsession to tell narrative through the form of truth. To hell with true stories. I have lived a thousand true stories and they are ugly and filled with bastards and holes. Tate here, becoming repetitive at times, showed me a world which was not true at all, from talking donkeys to weird ships, that also was representative of his feelings, or all human feelings (Grief, humor, anger, confusion, silliness) . He also doesn't fear the "I", as there was not one poem without it. I like I. Hell, I like me. (See what I did there). It is the centerfold of the poem, everything written stems from the I. What is there to write if I was not there to experience it. Maybe that contradicts my component of truth but I think one can tell the truth while lying, or more so tell the truth without giving away their position in it. Anyway its a good fucking book. Cheeky genius who isn't afraid to be a little bit bad.
August 18, 2024
Very weird but enjoyable collection of poems. I've never heard of this poet but saw the collection on the "new arrivals" table at the library and decided to give it a shot. A lot of the poems felt like I was reading someone's dream journal. Many of them made me smile or chuckle, but many of them just escaped me completely.
January 23, 2024
Goodtime Jesus, The Blue Booby, The Rules, Worshipful Company of Fletchers, The Rules, The Ice Cream Man, Everything But Thomas
They’re all excellent. He’s the George Saunders of poetry
They’re all excellent. He’s the George Saunders of poetry
April 24, 2024
Sure, a fever dream. Absurdism, related—in time and space and feeling—to DeLillo’s White Noise, which I read last month. But sometimes clear, or clear enough. Hell, I Love Everybody: The Essential James Tate was not a collected book of poetry like I would expect. I mean, its meanings were hidden enough (sometimes so deep I did not bother to dig further for them), but these poems are not achingly beautiful or even heavy with saturated object-ness, if that makes sense. Not technicolor. In fact, Tate often wanders into dialogue and into prose-poem-territory. I appreciated the book. I think older people would probably find (or found) more footholds in his stuff, more places to relate to Tate. But it’s still interesting poetry, still well-written, as least in the moments where I didn’t feel out of my depth as a reader and reviewer.
James Tate was a well-loved and well-lauded freeverse poet who was published at 23 and kept writing and being a poet until he died in 2015. Hell, I Love Everybody is a slim collection of Tate’s most beloved poems (though not at all comprehensive), recently published, kicking off with a poem titled “Hell, I Love Everybody,” a quote from a laid-back Jesus. The poems are no longer than three small pages a piece, full of trippy characters and nonsensical interactions woven with meaningful musings and jump-off-the-page turns of phrase. Many of the thoughts end at conscious-adjacent; the shadow you’re left with instead is emotion: fear, revulsion, sadness, nostalgia, confusion, wistfulness, wonder…
It is poetry month. I gave you some recommendations at the beginning of this month and told you that I would be reading a new collection of classic James Tate with one of my book clubs. I had never read James Tate (that I could remember). (During the month, I happened to acquire a few more books of poetry, And Yet Held by T. de los Reyes, What Pecan Light by Han Vanderhart, Lovebirds by Hananah Zaheer, and If We Had a Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That the Sun by Christopher Citro. They are all small, indie books that I will be reviewing for you eventually.)
The foreward in this book describes Tate’s poems in this way: “He was a ventriloquist and witness.” It also uses the words bizarre, mythic, absurd, quotidian, diurnal, surreal, and sometimes nightmarish. There are only enough poems to read one a week for a year, but it is a carefully curated (three years of thought and debate) book of “beloved favorites.”
It is often more prose than poetry (even sacrificing lyrical beauty for content and for a point (like repeating the same line till the bottom of the page)), some (absurd) storytelling, and even repeat characters (and phrases such as “hell,…”). Lots of conversations with fantastical things and animals. Tate uses stand-in words frequently (felisberto, mergatroid (which came first, the Tate poem or Yogi Bear?)), like a Lewis Carrol poem. Even gets to sound Shel Silverstein at times.
While there’s a genius to the foreward by Terrance Hayes (in how very James Tate-ish it is—What’s real? What’s the truth in fiction clothing?), I would have liked some clarity and straightforward exposition in the book to anchor my thoughts. Also, I find it mystifying that there is not one lick of biographical info between the covers, as if an About the Author or short bio—or even mentioning anything about the man in the foreward—would have broken faith with the James Tate club that this book seems to be compiled for. Honestly, it just would have helped me understand if allusions were before or after (were the poems referencing something else or was life referencing them?) and what historical events and cultural markers Tate was writing about. His contemporaries had that much at least when they were reading the poems (and short stories) the first time: it’s not something that was meant to be hidden, guys.
My favorites from this book are:
“Never Again the Same”
“Toads Talking by a River”
“The Bookclub”
“Of Whom Am I Afraid?”
“A Largely Questioning Article Offering Few Answers”
“The Ice Cream Man”
“The War Next Door”
So with a little understanding that you’ll have to come to on your own, you can probably trip your way through these poems either in an afternoon or in 52 trips to the bathroom. Or read one a week for a year and then go to the James Tate site and poke around, notice that the poem index has hundreds and hundreds of poems, look for a few of his recorded readings on the internet, consider listening to the poems in the car…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Tate was an American poet. He came out of the Iowa creative writing program, was published early, and was a poet through and through. He won some top awards, including the Pulitzer, the William Carlos Williams Award, and National Book Award. He taught in an MFA program and ended up with 19 volumes of poetry and other books that included one (co-written) novel. He was born during WWII and it looks like his dad died the next year in the war. Tate died in 2015.
QUOTES
“You are the stranger / who gets stranger by the hour” (p7, “Consumed”).
“We are playing the same song and no one has ever heard anything” (p10, “Read the Great Poets”).
“They get home. That’s all that matters to tme. They get home. They get home alive” (p10, “Read the Great Poets”).
“’Frogs in the Dark, Lily / pads in the Dark, Pond in the Dark. Just as / many things exist in the dark as they do in / the light’” (p22, “The Painter of the Night”).
“’You regret / everything, I bet. You came here / with a crude notion of righting / all that was wrong with your own / bitter childhood, but you have become / your own father—cruel, taunting— / who had become his father, and so on’” (p28, “Worshipful Company of Fletchers”).
“I thought it was going to be / an awful party, but I just told the truth whenever I was spoken / to, and people thought I was hilariously funny” (p34, “The Formal Invitation”).
“The wind makes a salad / of the countryside…” (p84, “Pastoral Scene”).
“…the / river is a truck in / a hurry” (p84, “Pastoral Scene”).
“Danger invites / rescue—I call it loving” (p93, “Rescue”).
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
James Tate was a well-loved and well-lauded freeverse poet who was published at 23 and kept writing and being a poet until he died in 2015. Hell, I Love Everybody is a slim collection of Tate’s most beloved poems (though not at all comprehensive), recently published, kicking off with a poem titled “Hell, I Love Everybody,” a quote from a laid-back Jesus. The poems are no longer than three small pages a piece, full of trippy characters and nonsensical interactions woven with meaningful musings and jump-off-the-page turns of phrase. Many of the thoughts end at conscious-adjacent; the shadow you’re left with instead is emotion: fear, revulsion, sadness, nostalgia, confusion, wistfulness, wonder…
It is poetry month. I gave you some recommendations at the beginning of this month and told you that I would be reading a new collection of classic James Tate with one of my book clubs. I had never read James Tate (that I could remember). (During the month, I happened to acquire a few more books of poetry, And Yet Held by T. de los Reyes, What Pecan Light by Han Vanderhart, Lovebirds by Hananah Zaheer, and If We Had a Lemon We’d Throw It and Call That the Sun by Christopher Citro. They are all small, indie books that I will be reviewing for you eventually.)
The foreward in this book describes Tate’s poems in this way: “He was a ventriloquist and witness.” It also uses the words bizarre, mythic, absurd, quotidian, diurnal, surreal, and sometimes nightmarish. There are only enough poems to read one a week for a year, but it is a carefully curated (three years of thought and debate) book of “beloved favorites.”
It is often more prose than poetry (even sacrificing lyrical beauty for content and for a point (like repeating the same line till the bottom of the page)), some (absurd) storytelling, and even repeat characters (and phrases such as “hell,…”). Lots of conversations with fantastical things and animals. Tate uses stand-in words frequently (felisberto, mergatroid (which came first, the Tate poem or Yogi Bear?)), like a Lewis Carrol poem. Even gets to sound Shel Silverstein at times.
While there’s a genius to the foreward by Terrance Hayes (in how very James Tate-ish it is—What’s real? What’s the truth in fiction clothing?), I would have liked some clarity and straightforward exposition in the book to anchor my thoughts. Also, I find it mystifying that there is not one lick of biographical info between the covers, as if an About the Author or short bio—or even mentioning anything about the man in the foreward—would have broken faith with the James Tate club that this book seems to be compiled for. Honestly, it just would have helped me understand if allusions were before or after (were the poems referencing something else or was life referencing them?) and what historical events and cultural markers Tate was writing about. His contemporaries had that much at least when they were reading the poems (and short stories) the first time: it’s not something that was meant to be hidden, guys.
My favorites from this book are:
“Never Again the Same”
“Toads Talking by a River”
“The Bookclub”
“Of Whom Am I Afraid?”
“A Largely Questioning Article Offering Few Answers”
“The Ice Cream Man”
“The War Next Door”
So with a little understanding that you’ll have to come to on your own, you can probably trip your way through these poems either in an afternoon or in 52 trips to the bathroom. Or read one a week for a year and then go to the James Tate site and poke around, notice that the poem index has hundreds and hundreds of poems, look for a few of his recorded readings on the internet, consider listening to the poems in the car…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Tate was an American poet. He came out of the Iowa creative writing program, was published early, and was a poet through and through. He won some top awards, including the Pulitzer, the William Carlos Williams Award, and National Book Award. He taught in an MFA program and ended up with 19 volumes of poetry and other books that included one (co-written) novel. He was born during WWII and it looks like his dad died the next year in the war. Tate died in 2015.
QUOTES
“You are the stranger / who gets stranger by the hour” (p7, “Consumed”).
“We are playing the same song and no one has ever heard anything” (p10, “Read the Great Poets”).
“They get home. That’s all that matters to tme. They get home. They get home alive” (p10, “Read the Great Poets”).
“’Frogs in the Dark, Lily / pads in the Dark, Pond in the Dark. Just as / many things exist in the dark as they do in / the light’” (p22, “The Painter of the Night”).
“’You regret / everything, I bet. You came here / with a crude notion of righting / all that was wrong with your own / bitter childhood, but you have become / your own father—cruel, taunting— / who had become his father, and so on’” (p28, “Worshipful Company of Fletchers”).
“I thought it was going to be / an awful party, but I just told the truth whenever I was spoken / to, and people thought I was hilariously funny” (p34, “The Formal Invitation”).
“The wind makes a salad / of the countryside…” (p84, “Pastoral Scene”).
“…the / river is a truck in / a hurry” (p84, “Pastoral Scene”).
“Danger invites / rescue—I call it loving” (p93, “Rescue”).
***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***
November 17, 2023
I worship at the church of James Tate
November 14, 2023
The blue antelope!
“Finally, Cora whispered in my ear, / ‘My god, I see them. They’re so delicate, so / graceful. They’re like angels, cornflower / angels.’ I looked at Cora. She was disappearing. / She was becoming one of them.” - Rapture
Yeah Tate’s a genius!
“Finally, Cora whispered in my ear, / ‘My god, I see them. They’re so delicate, so / graceful. They’re like angels, cornflower / angels.’ I looked at Cora. She was disappearing. / She was becoming one of them.” - Rapture
Yeah Tate’s a genius!
November 25, 2024
funny, vaguely esoteric, distinctly american - james tate is such a joy.
favs: goodtime jesus, the cowboy, everything but thomas, the eternal ones of the dream
favs: goodtime jesus, the cowboy, everything but thomas, the eternal ones of the dream
September 29, 2023
Poetry is an issue of taste, almost more so than literature or non-fiction. Do you like the poet? Do you even like poetry? Do you "get" poetry? Is there really anything to "get" from poetry? Are poets purposely obfuscating or abstracting their message? Or am I just not familiar with the references? Is there a message anyway? or maybe there is no message on purpose? Lots of questions, lots of possibilities.
I often see Tate being lumped in with today's social media driven obsession with flash-fiction or micro fiction. To me, and to Tate, his work is decidedly not that. I'm not even sure those things exist. What does length have to do with any of it? What is the artistic value of separating novel from novella? In my own writing, I often refer to my version of poetry as short pieces in order to avoid that discussion. If you're at all like me, and get turned off when literary discussions begin to creep up up their own backside, well, James Tate is for you. He is a poet who transcends all of that nonsense. He's sad and funny in equal measure, often in the same poem, sometimes even in the same line. His poetry provokes, forces you to think, and stretches out whatever preconceived notions you may have kicking around in your brain of what story or poetry are "supposed" to be. It is never a bad idea to read James Tate. He is a fantastic way for people to start getting into poetry, and a breath of fresh air for folks who may be mired in it professionally, academically, or otherwise.
Some of my favorites are The Cowboy, The Rules (the one about the candy shop, there are two poems with this name), Pastoral Scene, and The Government Lake. Three of those four are included here, and given that many times "Essential" collections wind up ignoring or leaving out some of your favorite works, Ecco does a nice job with this one.
My only criticism comes from the absence of a true reference section in which the original homes of the individual poems would be listed. Otherwise, the preface serves a purpose utilizing the off-kilter tone of a Tate poem and lets you in a little as to who Tate the man was. Though, it was funny to see David Berman referenced without a proper exploration as to why they occupy a similar world. I believe there is a good short interview out there somewhere you can find between Tate and the Silver Jews frontman. That might have been a nice inclusion. A more academic essay wouldn't have been out of place either, something that sort of situates Tate's work in the greater world of academia and/or poetry but it doesn't seem like that was the goal with this book. For someone just getting into Tate, or having had him just recommended to you, this one is a good place to start.
It was funny that a young, good looking version of Tate was used for the cover. I sort of just always imagined him as an old professor. Not to mention, of any poet, his work sort of supports the use of a more abstract or out-of-the-box image for the cover. I would have preferred that, honestly. But, like I said, it's just a matter of taste.
Thanks to Ecco for the ARC!
I often see Tate being lumped in with today's social media driven obsession with flash-fiction or micro fiction. To me, and to Tate, his work is decidedly not that. I'm not even sure those things exist. What does length have to do with any of it? What is the artistic value of separating novel from novella? In my own writing, I often refer to my version of poetry as short pieces in order to avoid that discussion. If you're at all like me, and get turned off when literary discussions begin to creep up up their own backside, well, James Tate is for you. He is a poet who transcends all of that nonsense. He's sad and funny in equal measure, often in the same poem, sometimes even in the same line. His poetry provokes, forces you to think, and stretches out whatever preconceived notions you may have kicking around in your brain of what story or poetry are "supposed" to be. It is never a bad idea to read James Tate. He is a fantastic way for people to start getting into poetry, and a breath of fresh air for folks who may be mired in it professionally, academically, or otherwise.
Some of my favorites are The Cowboy, The Rules (the one about the candy shop, there are two poems with this name), Pastoral Scene, and The Government Lake. Three of those four are included here, and given that many times "Essential" collections wind up ignoring or leaving out some of your favorite works, Ecco does a nice job with this one.
My only criticism comes from the absence of a true reference section in which the original homes of the individual poems would be listed. Otherwise, the preface serves a purpose utilizing the off-kilter tone of a Tate poem and lets you in a little as to who Tate the man was. Though, it was funny to see David Berman referenced without a proper exploration as to why they occupy a similar world. I believe there is a good short interview out there somewhere you can find between Tate and the Silver Jews frontman. That might have been a nice inclusion. A more academic essay wouldn't have been out of place either, something that sort of situates Tate's work in the greater world of academia and/or poetry but it doesn't seem like that was the goal with this book. For someone just getting into Tate, or having had him just recommended to you, this one is a good place to start.
It was funny that a young, good looking version of Tate was used for the cover. I sort of just always imagined him as an old professor. Not to mention, of any poet, his work sort of supports the use of a more abstract or out-of-the-box image for the cover. I would have preferred that, honestly. But, like I said, it's just a matter of taste.
Thanks to Ecco for the ARC!
October 26, 2023
While all books are subjective in the view of individual readers, poetry, as a genre, seems more so than most. As with all art, you know if you like it or don't like it but may not necessarily be able to clearly express why.
I enjoy poetry for the change of pace it gives from fiction and nonfiction. I had never heard of James Tate before requesting to read and review this book. The Publisher Note explains to the reader that the digital form of Tate's poetry doesn't allow for the original intended look/placement of the lines on the physical page due to the need to split long lines at a point the poet had not intended. I have never encountered such concern about this before and wondered why it was of such importance. This further piqued my interest and curiosity before I reached the first poem.
The publisher's note is followed by a forward in which it appears that Tate was an iconic cult hero in his time. Next, an editor's note tells of the long and laborious process of deciding which of Tate's poems to include in the book with the accompanying angst of not wanting to offend anyone by their choices.
The overall buildup before the first poem was presented made me wonder what I was in for. So much build-up!
The individual offerings weren't what I expected, often more resembling a very short story than a typical poem which made me wonder anew about the concern of line placement. Some of the offerings I enjoyed very much, others not at all. A poem evokes a response, or it doesn't.
Overall, the book was just so-so for me, and I fail to see what the big deal is. In truth, I think the three notes prior to the work itself detract from the book rather than enhance the reader's experience.
My thanks to Ecco for permitting me to access a DRC of the book via NetGalley. Publication is set for 11/7/23. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.
I enjoy poetry for the change of pace it gives from fiction and nonfiction. I had never heard of James Tate before requesting to read and review this book. The Publisher Note explains to the reader that the digital form of Tate's poetry doesn't allow for the original intended look/placement of the lines on the physical page due to the need to split long lines at a point the poet had not intended. I have never encountered such concern about this before and wondered why it was of such importance. This further piqued my interest and curiosity before I reached the first poem.
The publisher's note is followed by a forward in which it appears that Tate was an iconic cult hero in his time. Next, an editor's note tells of the long and laborious process of deciding which of Tate's poems to include in the book with the accompanying angst of not wanting to offend anyone by their choices.
The overall buildup before the first poem was presented made me wonder what I was in for. So much build-up!
The individual offerings weren't what I expected, often more resembling a very short story than a typical poem which made me wonder anew about the concern of line placement. Some of the offerings I enjoyed very much, others not at all. A poem evokes a response, or it doesn't.
Overall, the book was just so-so for me, and I fail to see what the big deal is. In truth, I think the three notes prior to the work itself detract from the book rather than enhance the reader's experience.
My thanks to Ecco for permitting me to access a DRC of the book via NetGalley. Publication is set for 11/7/23. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.
January 23, 2024
James Tate is among essential poets. I own and have read every book he published, including his short stories, his book of essays and his strange little collaborative book with Bill Knott. Being a completist, I had to buy this ‘Essential Tate’, even though I’ve essentially got all those poems anyways.
I was surprised by how thin this collection is. To boil 16 books down into just 52 poems seems like an incredibly concentrated book, which it is. There’s not a poem that misses in any of the 52.
To be a bit nit-picky, there were two poems that were pulling similar moves, (‘The Rules’ and ‘The Ice Cream Man’) I thought one of those could have been swapped for something else. And there were a few other poems I’d have likely swapped for some others too (the two ‘I am a Finn’ poems are not my favourites). But what is essential for one isn’t necessarily the same for another.
I was surprised too that there was no indication of what book each poem had been pulled from. There was no chronological ordering of poems (which was a nice touch). The lack of an index made for a very clean book, but I’d personally liked to have seen that information.
Both introductions add a lot to the collection. Dara Dixon’s editor’s note gave me some comfort going into the collection: that they wanted to make an ‘intimate book’, and that ‘A comprehensive or complete collection… when one comes, will be another kind of book, valuable in other ways.’
All in all, a great collection. One I’d definitely recommend to friends who’d never read Tate before. Though, for friends who I know would love Tate, I’d suggest his two earlier selected(s) (With his second selected “Eternal Ones of the Dream (1990-2010)” being first, and his earlier “Selected Poems (19671986)” second). They offer a wider ranger of his work, and are more thorough in their scope.
I was surprised by how thin this collection is. To boil 16 books down into just 52 poems seems like an incredibly concentrated book, which it is. There’s not a poem that misses in any of the 52.
To be a bit nit-picky, there were two poems that were pulling similar moves, (‘The Rules’ and ‘The Ice Cream Man’) I thought one of those could have been swapped for something else. And there were a few other poems I’d have likely swapped for some others too (the two ‘I am a Finn’ poems are not my favourites). But what is essential for one isn’t necessarily the same for another.
I was surprised too that there was no indication of what book each poem had been pulled from. There was no chronological ordering of poems (which was a nice touch). The lack of an index made for a very clean book, but I’d personally liked to have seen that information.
Both introductions add a lot to the collection. Dara Dixon’s editor’s note gave me some comfort going into the collection: that they wanted to make an ‘intimate book’, and that ‘A comprehensive or complete collection… when one comes, will be another kind of book, valuable in other ways.’
All in all, a great collection. One I’d definitely recommend to friends who’d never read Tate before. Though, for friends who I know would love Tate, I’d suggest his two earlier selected(s) (With his second selected “Eternal Ones of the Dream (1990-2010)” being first, and his earlier “Selected Poems (19671986)” second). They offer a wider ranger of his work, and are more thorough in their scope.
Read
November 22, 2025“Nobody gets what he/ wants. A dark star passes through/ you in your way home from/ the grocery: never again are you/ the same—an experience which is/ impossible to forget, impossible/ to share. The longing to be pure/ is over. You are the stranger/ who gets stranger by the hour” (6-7)
“There’s a typewriter in the next room./ Two cars are angry at each other./ The baby downstairs is wet again./ I remember the voice of a dead friend./ Everything speaks at the same time./ Music will watch us drown” (9)
“After a poodle dies/ all the cardinals flock to the nearest 7-Eleven” (12)
“Roger was a practical joker of the worst sort, and up till now I had not been one of his victims, so I kind of knew my time had come” (23)
"I felt lonely, like I'd missed the boat, or I'd found the boat and it was deserted. In the middle of the road a child's shoe glistened. I walked around it. It woke me up a little" (46)
'Plutonian emeralds,/ all swirling and churning, swabbing, / like it was playing with us,/ like we were nothing,/ as if our whole lives were preparations for this,/ this for which nothing could have prepared us/ and for which we could not have been less prepared./ The mockery of it all stung us bitterly./ And when it was finally over/ we whimpered and cried and howled...and we looked into one another's eyes--ancient caves with still pools/ and those little transparent fish/ who have never seen even one ray of light./ And the calm that returned to us/ was not even our own" (50-51)
"This is the beauty of being alone/ toward the end of summer:...This is a house of unwritten poems/ this is where I am unborn" (83)
"everything is/ relevant. I call it loving" (93)
“There’s a typewriter in the next room./ Two cars are angry at each other./ The baby downstairs is wet again./ I remember the voice of a dead friend./ Everything speaks at the same time./ Music will watch us drown” (9)
“After a poodle dies/ all the cardinals flock to the nearest 7-Eleven” (12)
“Roger was a practical joker of the worst sort, and up till now I had not been one of his victims, so I kind of knew my time had come” (23)
"I felt lonely, like I'd missed the boat, or I'd found the boat and it was deserted. In the middle of the road a child's shoe glistened. I walked around it. It woke me up a little" (46)
'Plutonian emeralds,/ all swirling and churning, swabbing, / like it was playing with us,/ like we were nothing,/ as if our whole lives were preparations for this,/ this for which nothing could have prepared us/ and for which we could not have been less prepared./ The mockery of it all stung us bitterly./ And when it was finally over/ we whimpered and cried and howled...and we looked into one another's eyes--ancient caves with still pools/ and those little transparent fish/ who have never seen even one ray of light./ And the calm that returned to us/ was not even our own" (50-51)
"This is the beauty of being alone/ toward the end of summer:...This is a house of unwritten poems/ this is where I am unborn" (83)
"everything is/ relevant. I call it loving" (93)
June 14, 2024
A collection of poems that are mini-stories, no thematic thread throughout, just individual poems.
from Goodtime Jesus: "Jesus got up one day a little later than usual. He had been dreaming so deep there was nothing left in his head. What was it? A nightmare, dead bodies walking all around him, eyes rolled back, skin falling off. But he wasn't afraid of that. It was a beautiful day."
from Where Babies Come From: "Many are from the Maldives, / southwest of India, and must begin / collecting shells almost immediately. / The larger ones may prefer coconuts. / Survivors move from island to island / hopping over one another and never / looking back."
from Finding Out Something in a Cafe: "Clusters of spoons / clamber from their shelves: / the stiff, wicked rain // has made void my stealth."
from Goodtime Jesus: "Jesus got up one day a little later than usual. He had been dreaming so deep there was nothing left in his head. What was it? A nightmare, dead bodies walking all around him, eyes rolled back, skin falling off. But he wasn't afraid of that. It was a beautiful day."
from Where Babies Come From: "Many are from the Maldives, / southwest of India, and must begin / collecting shells almost immediately. / The larger ones may prefer coconuts. / Survivors move from island to island / hopping over one another and never / looking back."
from Finding Out Something in a Cafe: "Clusters of spoons / clamber from their shelves: / the stiff, wicked rain // has made void my stealth."
July 14, 2024
Come for the introduction. And stay for the festival of James Tate. Read four or less in one sitting. More than that and you'll feel this too much a "gift-ready" selection for people who need to laugh and you might get a little queasy. You do need to laugh. But also to hurt. And James' stuff does this, but he does also appear to have tricks. Shticks. We all do. It's okay. James' poems are more than okay. They are goofball bathbombs. They are secret messages. They are from olden times. They make me feel alive today.
p.s. The FINN! If you are Finnish-American or Finnish anything I hope you read this and die the way we Finns like to die.
(Of embarrassment.) (Which is happiness. Somehow.)
p.s. The FINN! If you are Finnish-American or Finnish anything I hope you read this and die the way we Finns like to die.
(Of embarrassment.) (Which is happiness. Somehow.)
December 20, 2023
I hate reading poetry. I love listening to poetry. If you ask me I will forever stand by my opinion that poetry is a performance art. I want to hear the poet's words coming out of the poet's mouth. Just reading a poem is the same as reading sheet music and not listening to the song, or reading the script and not watching the play. That being said, James Tate writes very readable poems for whatever I mean by that and I'm not sure that I even know.
March 17, 2025
i am reminded of one of my favorite reviews of a book of poetry i’ve ever read (tony hoadland’s review of matthew dickman’s mayakovsky’s revolver)
“someone broke into the Academy of American Poetry and opened a big window…and through that window is blowing so much fresh air, full of earthy new smells and scenery from far-off climates”
jim tate broke into the poetry section of my mind and there is so much fresh, whimsical air that i can now breathe in
“someone broke into the Academy of American Poetry and opened a big window…and through that window is blowing so much fresh air, full of earthy new smells and scenery from far-off climates”
jim tate broke into the poetry section of my mind and there is so much fresh, whimsical air that i can now breathe in
November 24, 2025
Surreal, funny, beautiful…. Ohhhhh ya
I dont find james tates poetry to be perfect, but its a hell of a lot of fun
Makes you wanna meet the guy, attend a reading, read out loud to your friends and family and loved ones
Not the most inspired wording all the time but genuinely quirky and fun, sometimes very emotional
Feels american in a good way, feels shareable in an inspiring way
Tragic and, yes, funny
I dont find james tates poetry to be perfect, but its a hell of a lot of fun
Makes you wanna meet the guy, attend a reading, read out loud to your friends and family and loved ones
Not the most inspired wording all the time but genuinely quirky and fun, sometimes very emotional
Feels american in a good way, feels shareable in an inspiring way
Tragic and, yes, funny
April 17, 2023
Some of the poems are really interesting, some are kind of absurd. Overall, the way the poems are written makes them easy to read. The poems were laid out on the page in a very interesting matter, given that a lot of the lines of poetry were very long. It didn't seem like very many of the poems rhymed. But the content was entertaining to read. They almost felt like short stories.
January 14, 2024
I can't get over the particular flavor of Tate's matter-of-factness with creative, wild scenarios, conversations, etc. How some of his poems are outright hilarious and some bring tears. One of my favorite poets and I love this collection.
May 3, 2024
Forgot how much I loved Tate's poems. Witty, surreal, deceptively easy to consume. Timeless. Hilarious. At times a dark humor, just below the surface. You want to find strangers in parks and read them these poems.
August 2, 2024
I taped the audio version onto cassette and listen to it in my car. It renews my wonder to read this collection. I'm glad I have this subtle way to get my boys reading poetry like this. I think we are all lost pilots in some way.
December 27, 2024
The dog, bank robber, book club poems are some of the highlights. The comedy sketch group The State may owe the Tate estate some $ for the line in the Jesus poem that is this collection's title for the is also in the iconic "Louie at the Last Supper" sketch.
November 11, 2023
ilysfm 🥺
December 6, 2023
If I ever have the opportunity to teach creative writing again, this book will be on the syllabus.
December 12, 2023
Very unique—definitely for you if you like absurdity and dream states. I could not finish a good handful of poems, enjoyed another handful, and most of the others dragged on. Just not my thing !
January 4, 2024
Funny cover. Highlights are Lost Pilot, Roscoe’s farewell
Read
January 4, 2024“everything is / relevant. I call it loving”
February 18, 2024
A beautiful, funny, and always moving collection. It's also deeply weird, which I dig.
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