Wu Wei: Poems

by Tom Crawford

Tom Crawford's words paint familiar landscapes—Seattle's coastline, New York's public spaces, rural China, and Western mobile homes—in a new light. In poems as humorous as they are revelatory, sea birds careen off cliff walls "Then back/to the water to consider/where they went wrong," nudes are spontaneously drawn in urban coffee shops, and the Bhagavad Gita sits on a shelf in a trailer home, holding up deodorant. Crawford’s Eastern spirituality, tempered by working-class pragmatism, transforms these narrative poems into memorable portraits of the everyday.

96 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2006

About the author

Tom Crawford grew up in California in the Kern Valley. After graduation from Sacramento Statue U. with a BA/MA in English, he taught for seven years English and poetry writing at Solano College in the Bay area. His first collection of poems was a chapbook entitled I Want to Say Listen (Ironwood Press). In 1986 he received his second National Endowment for the Arts award. He's lived and taught in both China and South Korea. In 2010, he was Poet and Scholar in Residence at Harbor View Hospital in Seattle.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are great poems very much of the places where they were written including China and Oregon. The imagery is so apt for each of the geographic areas he inhabits.

[Patrick · Rating 2 out of 5]

His poems don't do it for me. That said, I think he'd be interesting to know. And I like that he likes dogs.