A Life Above Water

by Doug Van Gundy

A Life Above Water is a cycle of poems that examines both the natural and human worlds and explores the boundaries between the two. The poet explores personal ecologies and mythologies—the ways that things are interconnected and the stories that we create to explain those connections. The book is arranged in three concentric sections, each subsequent division nesting within the previous one. The reader is drawn into the broad, inclusive view of "All These Indigestible Parts" with its focus on the animals of the forest and birds of the air, the apparent cruelty of the natural world and that which is human about the animal—through "Fellowship and Baked Goods" which looks at peopled communities and the ways we interact with one another, to the tighter, more personal focus of "The Great Slowing" and its themes of loss, shortcoming and redemption. The poems are individually free-standing and complete, but taken as a whole form a broad yet detailed portrait of the world around us and our place within it. By turns analytical, scientific, lyrical, whimsical and spiritual, A Life Above Water is a book that fits neatly into the canon of contemporary poetry while offering a unique, fresh and accessible perspective.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2007

About the author

Doug Van Gundy teaches in the low-residency MFA program at West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he also directs the undergraduate Honors Program. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in The Oxford American, Appalachian Heritage, Ecotone, Fretboard Journal, and Poetry Salzburg Review. He is also an award-winning fiddler and banjo player and performs as part of the old-time duo, Born Old.

Reviews

[Hilary "Fox" · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Life Above Water is a beautiful collection of natural poems divided into three parts. Each part corresponds with a part of life itself - the time before birth, the living, and finally the slowing down that ends in our own demise. The connections are less overt than they are a subtle feeling among the poems itself. There's a cyclical nature to it all that creates a perfect sense of satisfaction at the end of the reading, a beautiful form of acceptance and self-reflection that the best poetry can bring. This definitely is the best kind of poetry.

I loved the feelings and imagery this book created, the strength in the silences and use of lacunae in some of the poems. I loved the focus upon nature and the feeling of West Virginia in the verse itself. Having spent so much of my childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I felt a kinship to the poetry, as I did in many of the other WV poet collections I recently read. Perhaps I liked this one as much as I did for its focus upon the water? It brought me back to catching crawdads in streams, or fishing on the Chesapeake Bay.

This is a beautiful collection, and I greatly hope to read more of Doug Van Gundy's poetry soon. He has such a great, calming pace.

[Cole Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read it over and over again, and shared favorites with students.

[Melissa Helton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how these poems zoom in on a microcosm of the natural world in a way that carries up to the human world and out through the broadest macrocosm. Wonderful poems.

[Red Hen Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Life Above Water is a cycle of poems that examines both the natural and human worlds and explores the boundaries between the two. The manuscript is concerned with personal ecologies and mythologies — the ways that things are interconnected and the stories that we create to explain those connections.

The manuscript is arranged in three concentric sections, each subsequent division nesting within the previous one. The reader is drawn into the broad, inclusive view of “All These Indigestible Parts” with its focus on the animals of the forest and birds of the air, the apparent cruelty of the natural world and that which is human about the animal — through “Fellowship and Baked Goods” which looks at peopled communities and the ways we interact with one another, to the tighter, more personal focus of “The Great Slowing” and its themes of loss, shortcoming and redemption.

The poems are individually free-standing and complete, but taken as a whole form a broad yet detailed portrait of the world around us and our place within it. By turns analytical, scientific, lyrical, whimsical and spiritual, A Life Above Water is a book that fits neatly into the canon of contemporary poetry while offering a unique, fresh and accessible perspective.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know much about poetry-- I just know what makes me feel calm and "A Life Above Water" made me feel very, very calm. My favorite poem in the collection is probably "Unsolicited Advice" but really they all are wonderful. I also adored "Some Lessons in Poverty" which, actually, are pretty true and made me smile as I go into a summer with an awesome but unpaid internship.

This collection is easy to approach-- a good book for a poetry novice like me.