Bread Without Sugar: Poems

by Gerald Stern

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Genres: Poetry, 20th Century

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Gerald Stern, the author of seventeen poetry collections, has won the National Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Ruth Lilly Prize, and the Wallace Stevens Award, among others. He lives in Lambertville, New Jersey.

Reviews

[kit]

giving this such a low rating feels very off seeing as i underlined at least one stanza / line / phrase in nearly every poem. really beautiful descriptions all over the place here. but i think all over the place kind of describes this entirely--i feel like all of the poems would have been better as essays. they rambled from topic to topic in a kind of stream of consciousness that i found lacking in both rhythm and direction... without even a distinguishable meter to guide the read i felt a bit like i was dragging myself through. and despite the confidence of the voice the content felt so confused, every line was SO overly specific about an event in the author's life that i obviously have no context for or attachment to, but then each recounting was constantly questioned. "it was X or maybe Y", "i was either A or B", "the day was A or B or C" but either option for the noun/adjective never makes a difference about what he's trying to say? and i just almost never feel like i get what he's trying to say 😭

[Dave Nichols]

And shouldn’t I sleep / like a wise man through the false dawn even if the first / thin blue is out there, even if there is a call / from one or two creatures, even if the cardinal / is making me moan, and even if the chickadee / is hanging upside down and banging his head / against the shiny glass— even if the worm / is fighting for his life and the lily of the valley / is bowing her head in shame, shouldn’t I live on?

[Katy German]

The language is well constructed, all the parts are oiled and machined together just fine, and yet something is missing. I'll read this again in the spring.

[Mills College Library]

811.54 S8392b 1992