Hands of the Saddlemaker

Yale Series of Younger Poets

by Nicholas Samaras, James Dickey (Foreword)

Nicholas Samaras's Hands of the Saddlemaker , the winning volume in the 1991 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, was selected from among 710 entries in this annual competition. The broad theme of Samaras's poems is the connection between eternal things and the passing world, between our sense of exile and our sense of commonality. Equilibrium between these worlds is achieved only through human feeling, through language. Samaras examines the commonality of experience in diverse international settings―from Byzantium to the cathedrals of technology in the modern cities of America. His language extols the primary delight and purpose of the music and inventiveness of language, wholly new and transformed, language that is both ancient and modern. Through an intensely personal and visual approach, these poems reveal our lives to us for time to come. Nicholas Samaras was born in Foxton, Cambridgeshire, England, in 1954. He was raised there and in Woburn, Massachusetts, and later settled in New York. Samaras received his undergraduate degree from Hellenic College, Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1978 and a Masters of Fine Arts in 1985 from Columbia University. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in English and creative writing at the University of Denver. His poems have appeared in such magazines as The New Yorker , Poetry , and American Scholar . Among his honors and awards are a New York Foundation for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1986, a Taylor Fellowship for study abroad in 1981-82, and a prize from the Academy of American Poets in 1983.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 1992

Reviews

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection reminds me a bit of Seamus Heaney, but a bit more lucid. I ran across this work in a used bookstore in Texas. I opened it up in the middle and began reading, only to find myself razing through each poem right there on the spot. Some of the most clear and humbling collection of poetry I have ever read. This is truly remarkable writing.

[Joy David · Rating 4 out of 5]

It meanders a bit through what feels like “fluff” when there’s such a potent and clear voice that inhabits the poignant moments but maybe that’s just the method itself, where the speaker very much meanders through heavy places in their life and the world in search of those epiphanies. When the poems hit, they HIT. When they fall flat they very much fizzle out. But the highs in this book are very hard to maintain across an entire collection. I enjoyed this more than expected, it was a pleasant and meditative surprise to sit with it while I did.

[Caleb Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m proud to call Nick a mentor and a friend. These poems come from a heart which has traveled far, seen much, and learned to let go while holding onto the details and memories that matter. For as much as Saddlemaker is about a speaker in constant transition, these poems offer a place of respite to any weary traveler in this world.

[w gall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A continual stream of evocative images related to the insides of the author. We meet a sojourner, one who has experienced loss, one who struggles with broken relationships (some by death). The poems flow from the heart.

[Cameron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. One of my favorite books I've read in the last year. Samaras manages to enter into the mystery of experiences, places, relationships through these poems in a disarming, earthy way. His Orthodox faith informs his writing, but it has an integrated, holistic, humble presence here. Wise and moving. I love these poems.

[John Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful observations and wrestlings with forgiveness. "Amphilohios," "In the Shell of a Cathedral City," and "Easter in the Cancer Ward" were particular highlights.