The Holy Forest

by Robin Blaser

poetry, Blaser's 40-year masterwork

Genres: Poetry

416 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Mitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had not read a lot of Blaser when I bought this book at the Strand (when it was just out). I had read Cups, and a few things here and there in anthologies, I had heard him read a time or two, and of course, had engraved his essay on the OUTSIDE in the back of the Spicer book into my memory, but I was not prepared for what I found here. Cups, which opens this book, is a serial love poem of such romantic longing and lyric intensity that even though I could never find a copy for sale (that I could afford), I had made a xerox of it from my friend Greg's copy (which was signed, if I remember right) in the early 80's. I used to refer to it when fellow poets badmouthed the idea of writing love poems. Here was an example of how it is done.
But This collection shows the broad range of Blaser's interest, and it shows how unpredictable his writing can be. There are many wide open explorations of public language here, mainly in the Image-Nation series, where advertising & media blend with medieval scholastic musings and disjunct but declarative statements intrude, carrying the poem out into a space where anything can happen.
I had always thought of Blaser as being the third wheel in the triad of Spicer & Duncan, and had not taken his poetry seriously enough, until I read this book. Blaser is and always was a substantial poet in his own right, and is in no way beholden to Spicer or Duncan. I have been through the book from cover to cover three times, and might be due for a fourth time through, any day now.

[Megan]

Why have I waited so long to read Blaser? He is completely himself, yet evocative of so much I love about literature.... modern and mythic and melodious as can be. There is much to breathe in and say ahhh about in this thorough collection of his work.

[Bren · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars alone for "image nation 24 (oh pshaw-", one of the more inspired poems of autobiography and history of the 20th century. only circumstantially a poem about mormonism but remarkable in the moments when it is. the rest is great too. language is love <3

[David Jackson]

Robin Blaser is an astonishing poet. I'd read this back in 1996 cover to cover and so again. Still so many incredible lines.

[Greg Bem · Rating 5 out of 5]

My head responded to new things, to a totally complete approach to poetry often lacking in the finest and the coarsest writers around.

[Hedrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This revised and expanded collection of Blaser's poems is a classic. It was my great fortune to hear him read at a celebratory event when the book was released in 2006. Inspiring.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

new goat unlocked

[Louis Cabri]

"Collected poems," or serial longpoem? Yes.

The Sacred Wood? No. The Climax Forest? Um, no. The Forest City? No.

There is an ur copula in all of RB's poetry, one that makes Bob Perelman's poetry, which is a poetry that attempts to strip itself of every literary ornament, seem prolifically ornamental in a fabulous way.