Hazard and Prospect: New and Selected Poems

by Kelly Cherry

Lyrical beauty and power, imposing metaphor, and thought both deep and precise are hallmarks of Kelly Cherry’s poetry, on view in Hazard and New and Selected Poems. With a dazzling mastery and range of tone, technique, form, and ideas, Cherry presents a lifetime of powerful writing that coheres into a single, seamless work. In it she responds to the natural world, to philosophical dilem­mas, to spiritual longing, to political, ethical, and aesthetic questions, and, most powerfully, to love and loss. She shows us in sometimes searing poems where the hazards lie, and in transcendent verse a new, bright prospect, a “green place” on a farm in Virginia where time slows and holds and happiness abides.

Genres: Poetry

184 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Carola · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were four poems in this book that really drew me in:

p 102 Adult Ed. 101: Basic Home Repair for the Single Woman - clever in the way her practical gathering of tools to take over home maintenance tasks becomes a musing on the relationship.

p 119 Virgin and Child - she makes the classic piece of art come alive

p 121 The Radical - an attempt to delve into Jesus' thoughts while he was washing feet

p127 The Horse at Dusk - an animated portrait

[Al-anoud Al-Serhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think the title reflects the content of the book.hazardous and from the author's own perspective.beautiful,sensual ,sad,all described using a very rich "cultured" language.i highlighted many verses,sometimes whole poems. as if Kelly Cherry found the right words to describe a moment you failed to document in words yourself.i love this collection.