When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone

by Galway Kinnell

A collection of poems ranging from melancholy meditations of a solitary mind concerning estrangement and the longing for reconnection to the natural world and its creatures closely observed.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 1990

About the author

Kinnell studied at Princeton University, graduating in 1948. He later obtained a Master's degree from the University of Rochester.

As a young man, Kinnell served in the US Navy and traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East. His first volume of poetry, What a Kingdom It Was, was published in 1960.

Kinnell became very involved in the U.S. civil rights movement upon his return, joining CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) as a field worker and participating in a number of marches and other civil actions.

Kinnell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for Selected Poems (1980), a MacArthur Fellowship, a Rockefeller Grant, the 1974 Shelley Prize of the Poetry Society of America, and the 1975 Medal of Merit from National Institute of Arts and Letters. He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2001 to 2007.

Reviews

[TK421 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. With the recent death of Galway Kinnell, the world has lost a vibrant voice. His imagery and wordsmithing is a thing of wonder. While I did not completely understand all of the poems, each one of them affected me in some manner. He is a poet that I will most assuredly turn back to again and again.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[Moon Captain · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm crying so that's probably good.
I like how he talks. I wish people talked like this more often instead of like robots. Maybe if we got used to poetry we wouldn't cry when it happened. By we I mean me. I have lived a long time alone and I will be also alone in the grave. Oops, more crying. But actually a lot of this was just an old man with anxiety about dying and also like, reminiscing about really hot sex or whatever. So your standard fare. But fun phrasing, and isn't that what poetry is all about? Maybe not. 4 stars for style.

[Michael Fuhrman]

“after a long time of solitude, after the many steps taken / away from one’s kind, toward the kingdom of strangers, / the hard prayer inside one’s own singing / is to come back, if one can, to one’s own,”

[Shayna Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry is difficult for me to understand. I selected this collection from a library patron recommendation in efforts to read more widely and I am glad to have given it a shot. While I could see the beauty formed in Kinnell's words and read each piece carefully, this form of literature is simply not a style for me. That said, I am open to trying more works and seeing what is is out there.

[✨ Anna ✨ | ReadAllNight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gift from Michael

What could of been
I miss him still.
He inscribed a first edition
as a gift to me
still feel the tender

From an article in NYT
10/16/23

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated the word play and some specific phrases, but feel no need to pick this up again in the future (the basis of my rating system). I suppose it's not surprising that one who has lived a long time alone things about sex so much.

I may pick up another Kinnell collection from the library one day.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this collection uneven, especially compared to Kinnell's early poetry that was so astounding. There are some stunning lines and images, but also some convoluted syntax that I could not figure out with multiple readings.

[Kris Dersch · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I would classify most of these poems as nice but not my style, there were a few that really grabbed me. The imagery is spot on. The title poem, which comprises the entire fourth section, is just gorgeous.

[Stephanie H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really very skillful!

This runs the gamut from sorrowful to joyous, nostalgic and beautiful. I'm just thankful good poetry like this exists. Wish it were longer.

[Lydia Gates · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many of these poems were sexual. I think the author is "gay"? Best poem: Oatmeal.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mythic, spare, and haunting.

[j.e.rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Love is the religion that bereaves the bereft."

[Pablo Uribe]

it's all about part IV for me <3

[Cooch · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some very good poems

There are some very good poems mixed with some good, some ok and some weaker poems. The book is worth reading.

[Sarkis Antonyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

to be a keen, gentle observer of life like this is a gift, something i covet intensely

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection by a poet I enjoy. Several longer poems in this collection.

[Brian Wasserman · Rating 1 out of 5]

personal confessions of their own personally boring life, why is it poetry, who knows?

[Stephen Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Man on the Hotel Room Bed (excerpt)

For him sleep means lying as still as possible
for as long as possible thinking the worst.
Nor does it help to outlast the night–
in seconds after the light comes
the inner darkness falls over everything.
...
Love is the religion that bereaves the bereft.
No doubt his mother's arms still waver up
somewhere reaching for him; and perhaps
his father's are now ready to gather him
there where peace and death dangerously mingle.
But the arms of prayer, which pressed his chest
in childhood–long ago, he himself, in the name
of truth, let them go slack.

[Patrick Mcgee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first poetry collection I have had the pleasure of reading from Galway Kinnell. It started a bit slow for me and maybe a bit too far on the abstract side of things as well. However, as I dug further in, I felt the poems become more grounded with just the right mix of abstract for me to keep the work interesting, engaging, and somewhat mysterious. I also picked up his 1982 Selected Poems that won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer and plan on checking it out soon. Recommended.

[Leslie]

I will not name a "date I finished this book" because I don't think I'll ever be finished with this book. The titular cycle defined a part of my life the summer after my sophomore year in college; there are poems in it that I still haven't read with the focus they deserve. Galway Kinnell uses language with sensuality, precision, despair, joy, observation, creation, and more; he doesn't need to invent a new genre of poems because the ones he writes are so fully themselves.

[Lesley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite a few stunning poems near the end, this collection felt haphazard and vague. Most of the poems lacked Kinnell's typical clarity of image, which, to me, seems like a necessary companion to his habitual complexity of thought. I'd recommend The Past over this collection if you're looking for really excellent mid-career Kinnell.

[Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the great pleasure of hearing Kinnell read aloud from this volume and I will never forget the music with which he presented these poems. An incredibly moving event that changed the way I read and view poetry.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I am needy, I reach for this.

[Husayn · Rating 5 out of 5]

sad and beautiful

[Stephen Glynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I could not resonate with the poems except for 2-3. Poetry is a very individual thing. This just didn't do it for me.