The Invisible Wedding: Poems

by Richard Robbins

Genres: Poetry

79 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1984

About the author

Richard Robbins studied with Richard Hugo and Madeline DeFrees at the University of Montana, where he completed his MFA. He has published seven books of poems, most recently The Oratory of All Souls, which Lynx House Press released in 2023. He has received awards from The Loft, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Poetry Society of America. From 1986-2014, Robbins directed the Good Thunder Reading Series at Minnesota State University Mankato, where he recently retired from the creative writing program.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robbins has created marvelous complex poems that under scrutiny hold up and sing in a clear lyrical voice. The poems are varied: some project singular stories, one is about working out, and others infuse the abstract. This is collection that deserves to be read repeatedly in order to discover new insights with each jaunt with a master poet. This collection is about craft and forthright artfulness. Robbins has an eye for life in both complexity and simplicity. He delivers the goods for astute readers.

[Kristyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Robbins was my advisor in grad school, and I only recently came across this collection of poems from 1984.

Good poetry begets poetry, and these poems make me want to write.

Here is the end of the title poem:

"We were histories, re-arrived too late.
It was all we could do to sweep our hands
forever. To fish, to always forget
the beginning. We didn't care to regret. We were
here. Something was going on. We didn't know."