Dumb Luck

by Sam Hamill

Influenced by the Chinese and Japanese masters, Hamill’s Dumb Luck affirms his ability to give us back the world and all its vicissitudes. Here you will find Zen fables, elegies and haiku, bluesy riffs, and poems that celebrate births, marriages, the liberating exile of the poet, as well as verses that present the dumb luck that has peppered the poet’s life. Sam Hamill is the author of a dozen volumes of original poetry, as well as three collections of essays. He is the Founding Editor of Copper Canyon Press, director of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, and contributing editor at The American Poetry Review .

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

About the author

Poet, editor, translator, and essayist, Sam Hamill is author of more than thirty books including two from BOA Editions, Gratitude (1998), and Dumb Luck(2002). He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including ones from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, two Washington Governor’s Arts Awards, the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing, and the Washington Poets Association Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry. He co-founded Copper Canyon Press, and has worked extensively in prisons and with battered women and children.

Reviews

[Joshua Gage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hamill is a very strong poet, and these poems are a testament to that. However, at times they felt like lectures on poetry or Buddhism, and lacked that lyric intensity that I want in poetry. It's a strong collection, but there are a few weak moments along the way.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 2 out of 5]

A collection of unpoetic musings.

[Boxhuman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a mix of East and West, which will not appeal to all audiences, especially when words remain unexplained like "zafu", "kouen", "hashi", etc. The poet is often inspired by zen masters (and other poets, etc.) and includes them in his poems. Hamill is a man with a lot of knowledge tumbling around in his head, but usually doesn't sound pretentious (although at first he did, and then later on when he was, i.e. "On Being Invited").

I thought "The New York Poem" should have kicked the book off, but oh well. I liked "knowing that words can say//only so much, that/behind the words are more words behind those./What the old man understood/is that each word names, and by/naming, it divides" from Chuang Tzu and the First Noble Truth. I liked the lesson in "Weasel, Crow, and Coyote on the Dharma Trail". I thought "The Anger of Su Tung-p'o" was interesting: "Political power," he said, "is, of itself neither good or bad, but rises naturally. Like mushrooms growing in manure."

In "The New York Poem", I also want to kiss the ground when I read Rumi :)

I liked "Sisyphus" a lot and the description of old age.

"By morning, the leaves/have fallen into silence,/the wind has finally parted,/like lovers after a night,/all talked out, now broken-hearted." - on pg 43

"Love's an animal/that had no voice, a quick glance/at the right moment,/or perhaps jut a hint of/a smile - almost unnotice." - pg 50

I enjoyed "Winter Soltice, 1998" and "Praise a Fool and Make Him Useful" made me smile at the end. "Unsolicited" was brief, but brilliant.

"Sonnet on the Thirty-second Anniversary of My Internship as an Editor" blew me away. So funny, but sad, and yet hopeful. I loved it!

(I like his way of celebrating with sake and unagi. I like to celebrate with unagi, too)

"Rising" was fantastic - humor, solitude, silence are all carefully laid out.

"On Being Invited" hit and soon I felt like he was striking a pretentious vein (along with "New Math"). In fact, most of part 4 was dry and uninviting. However, "Great American Nude" pulled me back in, assuring me to stick around and that there's more fantastic things to come, and became easily one of my favorites.

"Road Hog Sutra" was funny and perfect.

I think his Bobbitt poems are interesting, even if I don't agree. "Arachnophobia" tried too hard and fell flat.

"A Woodsplitter's Meditation" was a perfect end.

Bottomline: Had it's ups and downs, but was really enjoyable.