Fall from Grace

by Christopher Buckley

Poetry. "He has an exquisite ear for language and a gutsy way of blending bravado with humility. Torrents of words hose down the reader, but no concept is overstated—it's all marvelously fresh" — Library Journal .

Genres: Poetry

77 pages, Paper

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

Christopher Buckley is a poet. For 2007-2008 he was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry at the University of California Riverside.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Patricia N. McLaughlin]

In this collection, the poet ruminates on his life at middle age, reflecting on the past 40 years of boyhood memories, school days, and professional strife in academia; and speculating on the possibilities and probabilities of his future: the dream of an empire yet to be built, the fantasies of being a hero like those he worships on the silver screen, the specters of the old man he will eventually become, the afterlife as a star in the heavens. Buckley’s tribute to Lorca is his crown jewel.

“What else should I be thinking
of at this late date—the electricity of the universe delivering itself
in waves or subtle packets through every equally unknowing thing
to the tips of my fingers, and the blank blue hum around my skin
extending itself like breath, exhaling slowly, a second part of some essential shining?”
—from “Lost Angel,” p. 30

Favorite Poems:
“Vacuum Genesis”
“Death of the Poet, 1936” (Lorca)
“4 Benches, 14 Orange Trees”
“Morning Dreaming of Empire”
“Astronomy Lesson: at Cafe Menorca”
“Winter: No. 7 Miranda de Cala Corb”
“20 Years of Grant Applications & State College Jobs”
“Against the Blue”
“Concerning Paradise”

[Al]

One of our finest and ost underrated poets. Worth the time of anyone who cares about poetry.