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Sinners Welcome
Mary Karr describes herself as a black-belt sinner, and this -- her fourth collection of poems --traces her improbable journey from the inferno of a tormented childhood into a resolutely irreverent Catholicism. Not since Saint Augustine wrote "Give me chastity, Lord -- but not yet!" has anyone brought such smart-assed hilarity to a conversion story. Karr's battle is grounded in common loss (a bitter romance, friends' deaths, a teenage son's leaving home) as well as in elegies for a complicated mother. The poems disarm with the arresting humor familiar to readers of her memoirs, The Liars' Club and Cherry . An illuminating cycle of spiritual poems have roots in Karr's eight-month tutelage in Jesuit prayer practice, and as an afterword, her celebrated essay on faith weaves the tale of how the language of poetry, which relieved her suffering so young, eventually became the language of prayer. Those of us who fret that poetry denies consolation will find clear-eyed joy in this collection.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published February 28, 2006
58 people are currently reading
1821 people want to read
About the author
Mary Karr
27 books2,084 followersMary Karr is an American poet, essayist and memoirist. She rose to fame in 1995 with the publication of her bestselling memoir The Liars' Club. She is the Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University.
Karr was born January 16, 1955, in Groves, a small town in East Texas located in the Port Arthur region, known for its oil refineries and chemical plants, to J. P. and Charlie Marie (Moore) Karr. In her memoirs, Karr calls the town "Leechfield." Karr's father worked in an oil refinery while her mother was an amateur artist and business owner.
The Liars' Club, published in 1995, was a New York Times bestseller for over a year, and was named one of the year's best books. It delves vividly and often humorously into her deeply troubled childhood, most of which was spent in a gritty, industrial section of Southeast Texas in the 1960s. She was encouraged to write her personal history by her friend, author Tobias Wolff, but has said she only took up the project when her marriage fell apart.
She followed the book with another memoir, Cherry (2000), about her late adolescence and early womanhood. A third memoir, Lit, which she says details "my journey from blackbelt sinner and lifelong agnostic to unlikely Catholic," came out in November 2009.
Karr thinks of herself first and foremost as a poet. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry in 2005 and has won Pushcart prizes for both her poetry and her essays. Karr has published four volumes of poetry: Abacus (Wesleyan University Press, CT, 1987, in its New Poets series), The Devil's Tour (New Directions NY, 1993, an original TPB), Viper Rum (New Directions NY, 1998, an original TPB), and her new volume Sinners Welcome (HarperCollins, NY 2006). Her poems have appeared in major literary magazines such as Poetry, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly.
She is a controversial figure in the American poetry "establishment," thanks to her Pushcart-award winning essay, "Against Decoration," which was originally published in the quarterly review Parnassus (1991) and later reprinted in Viper Rum. In this essay Karr took a stand in favor of content over poetic style. She argued emotions need to be directly expressed, and clarity should be a watch-word: characters are too obscure, the presented physical world is often "foggy" (that is imprecise), references are "showy" (both non-germane and overused), metaphors over-shadow expected meaning, and techniques of language (polysyllables, archaic words, intricate syntax, "yards of adjectives") only "slow a reader"'s understanding. Karr directly criticized well-known, well-connected, and award-winning poets such as James Merrill, Amy Clampitt, Vijay Seshadri, and Rosanna Warren (daughter of Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Penn Warren). Karr favors controlled elegance to create transcendent poetic meaning out of not-quite-ordinary moments, presenting James Merrill's Charles on Fire as a successful example.
While some ornamentations Karr rails against are due to shifting taste, she believes much is due to the revolt against formalism which substituted sheer ornamentation for the discipline of meter. Karr notes Randall Jarrell said much the same thing, albeit more decorously, nearly fifty years ago. Her essay is meant to provide the technical detail to Jarrell's argument. As a result of this essay Karr earned a reputation for being both courageous and combative, a matured version of the BB-gun toting little hellion limned in The Liars' Club.
Another essay, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer", was originally published in Poetry (2005). Karr tells of moving from agnostic alcoholic to baptized Catholic of the decidedly "cafeteria" kind, yet one who prays twice daily with loud fervor from her "foxhole". In this essay Karr argues that poetry and prayer arise from the same sources within us.
Karr was born January 16, 1955, in Groves, a small town in East Texas located in the Port Arthur region, known for its oil refineries and chemical plants, to J. P. and Charlie Marie (Moore) Karr. In her memoirs, Karr calls the town "Leechfield." Karr's father worked in an oil refinery while her mother was an amateur artist and business owner.
The Liars' Club, published in 1995, was a New York Times bestseller for over a year, and was named one of the year's best books. It delves vividly and often humorously into her deeply troubled childhood, most of which was spent in a gritty, industrial section of Southeast Texas in the 1960s. She was encouraged to write her personal history by her friend, author Tobias Wolff, but has said she only took up the project when her marriage fell apart.
She followed the book with another memoir, Cherry (2000), about her late adolescence and early womanhood. A third memoir, Lit, which she says details "my journey from blackbelt sinner and lifelong agnostic to unlikely Catholic," came out in November 2009.
Karr thinks of herself first and foremost as a poet. She was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry in 2005 and has won Pushcart prizes for both her poetry and her essays. Karr has published four volumes of poetry: Abacus (Wesleyan University Press, CT, 1987, in its New Poets series), The Devil's Tour (New Directions NY, 1993, an original TPB), Viper Rum (New Directions NY, 1998, an original TPB), and her new volume Sinners Welcome (HarperCollins, NY 2006). Her poems have appeared in major literary magazines such as Poetry, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly.
She is a controversial figure in the American poetry "establishment," thanks to her Pushcart-award winning essay, "Against Decoration," which was originally published in the quarterly review Parnassus (1991) and later reprinted in Viper Rum. In this essay Karr took a stand in favor of content over poetic style. She argued emotions need to be directly expressed, and clarity should be a watch-word: characters are too obscure, the presented physical world is often "foggy" (that is imprecise), references are "showy" (both non-germane and overused), metaphors over-shadow expected meaning, and techniques of language (polysyllables, archaic words, intricate syntax, "yards of adjectives") only "slow a reader"'s understanding. Karr directly criticized well-known, well-connected, and award-winning poets such as James Merrill, Amy Clampitt, Vijay Seshadri, and Rosanna Warren (daughter of Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Penn Warren). Karr favors controlled elegance to create transcendent poetic meaning out of not-quite-ordinary moments, presenting James Merrill's Charles on Fire as a successful example.
While some ornamentations Karr rails against are due to shifting taste, she believes much is due to the revolt against formalism which substituted sheer ornamentation for the discipline of meter. Karr notes Randall Jarrell said much the same thing, albeit more decorously, nearly fifty years ago. Her essay is meant to provide the technical detail to Jarrell's argument. As a result of this essay Karr earned a reputation for being both courageous and combative, a matured version of the BB-gun toting little hellion limned in The Liars' Club.
Another essay, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer", was originally published in Poetry (2005). Karr tells of moving from agnostic alcoholic to baptized Catholic of the decidedly "cafeteria" kind, yet one who prays twice daily with loud fervor from her "foxhole". In this essay Karr argues that poetry and prayer arise from the same sources within us.
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July 9, 2018This collection includes one of my favorites, one I use as a nice challenge poem in the classroom, "Revelations in the Key of K. It's number two in the line-up here.
What surprised me is how many of the poems deal with religion--specifically Karr's conversion to Catholicism as a lifeline in her struggle with alcoholism. The book even ends with an essay specifically on this topic, one called "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer."
Granted, those poems weren't exactly favorites, and granted also that few of them reach the crescendo of that Key of Karr 5-star writing, but still, a glad-I-read overall.
If you're considering it, a few more I liked, as found scattered over the internet:
"Last Love" as audio.
"Easter at Al Qaeda Bodega"
"A Blessing from My Sixteen Years' Son"
What surprised me is how many of the poems deal with religion--specifically Karr's conversion to Catholicism as a lifeline in her struggle with alcoholism. The book even ends with an essay specifically on this topic, one called "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer."
Granted, those poems weren't exactly favorites, and granted also that few of them reach the crescendo of that Key of Karr 5-star writing, but still, a glad-I-read overall.
If you're considering it, a few more I liked, as found scattered over the internet:
"Last Love" as audio.
"Easter at Al Qaeda Bodega"
"A Blessing from My Sixteen Years' Son"
February 29, 2016
I always read poetry twice before reviewing; I feel like reading a poem only once is not enough to really absorb it. This is Mary Karr's fourth book of poems, and I suspect I might like her earlier poems more, because the themes in this volume are outside my own experience. These are post-Catholic conversion, post-motherhood, and many tribute poems to friends who have passed. Since I read her childhood memoirs, The Liars' Club and Cherry, the poems about her parents were interesting - there are several addressed to her mother after her death, and I liked those quite a bit.
Some favorites:
Pathetic Fallacy
"...your features sometimes press toward me
all silvery from the afterlife...."
Disgraceland (read at The Poetry Foundation)
"...You are loved, someone said. Take that and eat it."
Some favorites:
Pathetic Fallacy
"...your features sometimes press toward me
all silvery from the afterlife...."
Disgraceland (read at The Poetry Foundation)
"...You are loved, someone said. Take that and eat it."
August 30, 2017
"There’s always joy in seeing how others see, even when it also entails a stab of pain."
I'm no poetry expert, but I really liked this collection. Most of the poems are very dark; many about the death of her eccentric mother. Some of the less dismal were are about her son. I liked those the most.
Published three years apart, this is a great companion to Karr's third memoir, Lit.
I'm no poetry expert, but I really liked this collection. Most of the poems are very dark; many about the death of her eccentric mother. Some of the less dismal were are about her son. I liked those the most.
Published three years apart, this is a great companion to Karr's third memoir, Lit.
November 15, 2025
A Poet's Conversion
In this short volume of confessional poetry, Mary Karr describes her difficult conversion from irreverence and agnosticism to Catholicism. Karr is Professor of English at Syracuse University, the author of several earlier books of poetry and memoirs, and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. The volume also includes an Afterword consisting of an essay Karr wrote for "Poetry" magazine: "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer" in which she describes in prose her religious conversion and the relationship she sees between poetry and religion. The essay rambles, and I found some of its colloquial, rough-talking character forced. It works far less well than the poems in this collection, which are generally moving and restrained.
Karr converted in mid-life. Prior to her conversion, her life was marked by a difficult childhood in a small Texas town, an ambiguous and violent relationship with her mother, unhappy sexual relationships, a failed marriage, and heavy drinking. In short poems, she writes about her early life experiences from the standpoint of her newfound life -- following her conversion. The poems are tart and sharp but they include an undercurrent of reflection and compassion.
Karr also writes poems describing her life following her conversion. Karr is emphatic that prayer and religious experience have not taken her from the realm of earthly sorrow. Karr describes her life as a single mother, her hopes for her son, and her loneliness when he leaves for college. She describes her continued and frequently unhappy experiences with lovers, and her ongoing difficulties with alcohol. Karr struggles with her religious faith as she struggles with events in her life. But she receives, undeniably, comfort in the church and in her personal experience of prayer.
Karr's autobiographical sequence of poems in this collection is punctuated by a series of five separate poems called "Descending Theology" which reflect upon the Nativity, the Life of Jesus,, the Betrayal, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. These poems are meditative in character and based, Karr tells us, on her eight-month study of Jesuit prayer. These five poems reflect upon and illuminate the way in which Karr responds to her experiences in the personal, confessional poems.
Many of the poems in this collection are harsh and tough-minded. Karr describes well her friends, family, and acquaintances as well as her own life. I tended to like best the poems with a more reflective tone. One of my favorites was "Elegy for a Rain Salesman" in which Karr puts the following words into the mouth of a recently-deceased friend:
"... I wanted to be a rain salesman,
carrying my satchel full of rain from door to door,
selling, thunder, selling the way air feels after a downpour,
but there are no openings in the rain department,
and so they left me dying behind this desk -- adding bleeps,
subtracting chunks -- and I would give a bowl of wild blossoms,
some rain, and two shakes of my fist at the sky to be living ..."
As I am, Karr is an admirer of the concert pianist, Awadagin Pratt. Her poem "A Major" celebrates her experience in hearing Pratt perform in a way that I understand first-hand. The poem begins: "I've come to see a dread-locked man/play Mozart like a demon(someone said) with angels/harrowing his back, or like a seraph/ sought by succubi." Karr concludes her experience with Pratt's performance:
"He's sprung our sternums wide
and freed us from our numbered seats.
We levitate as one and try to match
the thunder in his chest
with all our hands."
Some of the other poems I especially liked include "Hypertrophied Football Star as Serial Killer" the mystical and almost erotic title poem, "Sinners Welcome", "Winters Term End" which describes Karr's responses to the literary enthusiasms of a young student, and the religiously symbolic "For a Dying Tomcat Who's Relinquished his Former Hissing and Predatory Nature."
I had the good fortune to read this book at the same time that I was working through William James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience." James's book includes a lengthy discussion of religious conversion and awakening which distinguishes between a gradual conversion process and an instantaneous conversion experience. Karr's conversion fits the former pattern as James explained it. I found Karr's poetry and James's philosophy mutually illuminating. Readers interested in the extensive religious poetry written in the United States may also wish to explore the recent Library of America volume, "American Religious Poems: An Anthology" edited by Harold Bloom.
Robin Friedman
In this short volume of confessional poetry, Mary Karr describes her difficult conversion from irreverence and agnosticism to Catholicism. Karr is Professor of English at Syracuse University, the author of several earlier books of poetry and memoirs, and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. The volume also includes an Afterword consisting of an essay Karr wrote for "Poetry" magazine: "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer" in which she describes in prose her religious conversion and the relationship she sees between poetry and religion. The essay rambles, and I found some of its colloquial, rough-talking character forced. It works far less well than the poems in this collection, which are generally moving and restrained.
Karr converted in mid-life. Prior to her conversion, her life was marked by a difficult childhood in a small Texas town, an ambiguous and violent relationship with her mother, unhappy sexual relationships, a failed marriage, and heavy drinking. In short poems, she writes about her early life experiences from the standpoint of her newfound life -- following her conversion. The poems are tart and sharp but they include an undercurrent of reflection and compassion.
Karr also writes poems describing her life following her conversion. Karr is emphatic that prayer and religious experience have not taken her from the realm of earthly sorrow. Karr describes her life as a single mother, her hopes for her son, and her loneliness when he leaves for college. She describes her continued and frequently unhappy experiences with lovers, and her ongoing difficulties with alcohol. Karr struggles with her religious faith as she struggles with events in her life. But she receives, undeniably, comfort in the church and in her personal experience of prayer.
Karr's autobiographical sequence of poems in this collection is punctuated by a series of five separate poems called "Descending Theology" which reflect upon the Nativity, the Life of Jesus,, the Betrayal, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection. These poems are meditative in character and based, Karr tells us, on her eight-month study of Jesuit prayer. These five poems reflect upon and illuminate the way in which Karr responds to her experiences in the personal, confessional poems.
Many of the poems in this collection are harsh and tough-minded. Karr describes well her friends, family, and acquaintances as well as her own life. I tended to like best the poems with a more reflective tone. One of my favorites was "Elegy for a Rain Salesman" in which Karr puts the following words into the mouth of a recently-deceased friend:
"... I wanted to be a rain salesman,
carrying my satchel full of rain from door to door,
selling, thunder, selling the way air feels after a downpour,
but there are no openings in the rain department,
and so they left me dying behind this desk -- adding bleeps,
subtracting chunks -- and I would give a bowl of wild blossoms,
some rain, and two shakes of my fist at the sky to be living ..."
As I am, Karr is an admirer of the concert pianist, Awadagin Pratt. Her poem "A Major" celebrates her experience in hearing Pratt perform in a way that I understand first-hand. The poem begins: "I've come to see a dread-locked man/play Mozart like a demon(someone said) with angels/harrowing his back, or like a seraph/ sought by succubi." Karr concludes her experience with Pratt's performance:
"He's sprung our sternums wide
and freed us from our numbered seats.
We levitate as one and try to match
the thunder in his chest
with all our hands."
Some of the other poems I especially liked include "Hypertrophied Football Star as Serial Killer" the mystical and almost erotic title poem, "Sinners Welcome", "Winters Term End" which describes Karr's responses to the literary enthusiasms of a young student, and the religiously symbolic "For a Dying Tomcat Who's Relinquished his Former Hissing and Predatory Nature."
I had the good fortune to read this book at the same time that I was working through William James's "The Varieties of Religious Experience." James's book includes a lengthy discussion of religious conversion and awakening which distinguishes between a gradual conversion process and an instantaneous conversion experience. Karr's conversion fits the former pattern as James explained it. I found Karr's poetry and James's philosophy mutually illuminating. Readers interested in the extensive religious poetry written in the United States may also wish to explore the recent Library of America volume, "American Religious Poems: An Anthology" edited by Harold Bloom.
Robin Friedman
March 16, 2016
Two memoirs. One poetry book. One writing book. Yes, it was a Mary Karr week.
My Mary Karr reading frenzy all started quite innocently. I took a writing class last summer at Inprint in Houston. Our teacher told us Mary Karr was coming to Houston in September. I spontaneously decided to buy a ticket, vaguely remembering that I'd read her first memoir, Liar's Club, back twenty years ago or so. When the date of Karr's reading approached, I was exhausted by all the beginning-of-the-year stuff we teachers experience but I remembered a book was included in the price of the reading, and I didn't want to miss out on picking up that book. So I reluctantly decided to go. When I googled the address of the reading, I was surprised to see that it was being held in a church. Must not have been able to book the Wortham for that night, I thought.
I was wrong. It was no accident that Mary Karr was at Christ Church Cathedral, an Episcopal Church in downtown Houston, built in 1839; all her readings were being held in churches.
I was intrigued. An author in a church. Imagine that.
Mary Karr was fascinating. "I was a strange child," she told her audience at the reading. "I was not a happy child. But there was something about reading memoirs that made me feel less lonely." Karr shared her new book, The Art of Memoir, and suggested that through our stories we manufacture a self. "Writing a memoir is like knocking yourself out with your own fist," she told us.
All her books, Karr explained, could be summed up: "I am sad. The end."
In her life, Karr survived her alcoholic and dysfunctional parents to become an alcoholic and dysfunctional parent herself. And somehow she broke free of all that, mysteriously embracing both writing and the Catholic Church.
Mary Karr is a little older, a little less functional Texas-rooted me. Like me, she has both the redneck-storytelling people and the salvation-through-reading people in her family tree.
That was enough. I raced home from the reading and put everything I could find of Mary Karr's on hold at the library. I was amazed to find that not only were all three of her memoirs at the library, but that I could also check out and read one of her books of poetry.
I'll just tell you that her books are mostly "I am sad." But, happily, there is a little more there before "The end."
Beautiful writing. Sad stories. And redemption. Mary Karr.
My Mary Karr reading frenzy all started quite innocently. I took a writing class last summer at Inprint in Houston. Our teacher told us Mary Karr was coming to Houston in September. I spontaneously decided to buy a ticket, vaguely remembering that I'd read her first memoir, Liar's Club, back twenty years ago or so. When the date of Karr's reading approached, I was exhausted by all the beginning-of-the-year stuff we teachers experience but I remembered a book was included in the price of the reading, and I didn't want to miss out on picking up that book. So I reluctantly decided to go. When I googled the address of the reading, I was surprised to see that it was being held in a church. Must not have been able to book the Wortham for that night, I thought.
I was wrong. It was no accident that Mary Karr was at Christ Church Cathedral, an Episcopal Church in downtown Houston, built in 1839; all her readings were being held in churches.
I was intrigued. An author in a church. Imagine that.
Mary Karr was fascinating. "I was a strange child," she told her audience at the reading. "I was not a happy child. But there was something about reading memoirs that made me feel less lonely." Karr shared her new book, The Art of Memoir, and suggested that through our stories we manufacture a self. "Writing a memoir is like knocking yourself out with your own fist," she told us.
All her books, Karr explained, could be summed up: "I am sad. The end."
In her life, Karr survived her alcoholic and dysfunctional parents to become an alcoholic and dysfunctional parent herself. And somehow she broke free of all that, mysteriously embracing both writing and the Catholic Church.
Mary Karr is a little older, a little less functional Texas-rooted me. Like me, she has both the redneck-storytelling people and the salvation-through-reading people in her family tree.
That was enough. I raced home from the reading and put everything I could find of Mary Karr's on hold at the library. I was amazed to find that not only were all three of her memoirs at the library, but that I could also check out and read one of her books of poetry.
I'll just tell you that her books are mostly "I am sad." But, happily, there is a little more there before "The end."
Beautiful writing. Sad stories. And redemption. Mary Karr.
January 3, 2008
So many of these incredible poems compelled me to read them several times before moving on to the next poem. Several of the poems brought tears to my eyes. Karr has the ability to move a reader without gimmicks in her poems. No Hallmark-style manipulation of the reader's emotion. Just daring to write honestly about her life and her spirituality in the face of all the reasons there are to NOT believe in a higher power...
March 22, 2013
A beautiful collection of poetry that is lyrical and thought provoking. The pieces cover different topics pertaining to our modern world and how we can find salvation in some of the most unlikely places because God really is everywhere - not just in the squeaky clean segments of life. The poetry is moving and the essay at the end completes the ideas and draws the book to a close neatly. This is one of those books that I think I will rate more highly the more times I read it. Well worth your time if you're a fan of poetry.
July 3, 2008
Mary Karr shares my mother's name and birth year and strength and fragility. That's about where the comparisons end, as my mother is a lifelong conservative Wesleyan, and Mary Karr became a Catholic at 40 after lifelong literary liberalism (which she retains). My mother's had some choice words for people at times, particularly heartbreaking times, and Karr herself pulls from that reserve with abandon. (One poem here about a relationship gone sour ends with the poet-memoirist tagging herself as a "dumb cunt.")
Okay, so the comparisons don't quite end. Admittedly, I wished at times that I had a literary mama like Mary Karr. She obviously loves her only son (reminds one of Anne Lamott and her Sam stories) and writes beautifully about raising him, her "15 years' son" and then her "20 years' son," and about his departure to university and release from her grip forever, into this often-harsh world.
Karr interweaves "Descending Theology:" poems into the mix that have to do with the Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, among other topics. These works are fresh and inspiring. I really can't pick out just three to five poems to lift out from this 76-page tome of delights. It's an amazingly taut, lovely collection, one I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys literate, funny, touching, heartrending, sometimes-vulgar poems.
I learned of Mary Karr from Linford Detweiler, one-half of the folk band Over the Rhine, when I interviewed him in October 2007 (http://www.stereosubversion.com/inter...), and I haven't been disappointed. Also enjoyable was an NPR interview I listened to in which she reads from and discusses this latest work (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...).
Have at her if you dare. I doubt you'll regret reading from this "scrappy little beast" (Salon.com's words). She's controversial in the poetry establishment, favors content over poetic style (fewer metaphors and showy references, please), but her content is unique and invigorating. I'm eager to see more.
Okay, so the comparisons don't quite end. Admittedly, I wished at times that I had a literary mama like Mary Karr. She obviously loves her only son (reminds one of Anne Lamott and her Sam stories) and writes beautifully about raising him, her "15 years' son" and then her "20 years' son," and about his departure to university and release from her grip forever, into this often-harsh world.
Karr interweaves "Descending Theology:" poems into the mix that have to do with the Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, among other topics. These works are fresh and inspiring. I really can't pick out just three to five poems to lift out from this 76-page tome of delights. It's an amazingly taut, lovely collection, one I'd recommend to anyone who enjoys literate, funny, touching, heartrending, sometimes-vulgar poems.
I learned of Mary Karr from Linford Detweiler, one-half of the folk band Over the Rhine, when I interviewed him in October 2007 (http://www.stereosubversion.com/inter...), and I haven't been disappointed. Also enjoyable was an NPR interview I listened to in which she reads from and discusses this latest work (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...).
Have at her if you dare. I doubt you'll regret reading from this "scrappy little beast" (Salon.com's words). She's controversial in the poetry establishment, favors content over poetic style (fewer metaphors and showy references, please), but her content is unique and invigorating. I'm eager to see more.
April 14, 2012
Powerful poetry that wastes no words on the superficial or the peripheral.
"I opened up my shirt to show this man
the flaming heart he lit in me, and I was scooped up
like a lamb and carried to the dim warm.
I who should have been kneeling
was knelt to by one whose face
should be emblazoned on every coin and diadem:
. . . That the world could arrive at me
with him in it, after so much longing--
impossible. He enters me and joy
sprouts from us as from a split seed.
Mary Karr speaks of her life and world in unvarnished and unadorned words. These words contain much wisdom seeping around and between and through them. Her words describe a blunt beauty but remain pliant vessels bringing imperfect bodies and distorted lives onto the page that we might smell and taste and feel them in new ways, a more sensitive perception with a thicker knowing.
"I opened up my shirt to show this man
the flaming heart he lit in me, and I was scooped up
like a lamb and carried to the dim warm.
I who should have been kneeling
was knelt to by one whose face
should be emblazoned on every coin and diadem:
. . . That the world could arrive at me
with him in it, after so much longing--
impossible. He enters me and joy
sprouts from us as from a split seed.
Mary Karr speaks of her life and world in unvarnished and unadorned words. These words contain much wisdom seeping around and between and through them. Her words describe a blunt beauty but remain pliant vessels bringing imperfect bodies and distorted lives onto the page that we might smell and taste and feel them in new ways, a more sensitive perception with a thicker knowing.
June 15, 2018
A lovely spiritual feminine harsh symphony of a book of poems. Worth it just for her essay at the end.
August 1, 2021
Auto-poetry for the addict, loser, lawyer, etc. Poetry for everyone who yearns to feel joy.
October 9, 2024
A welcome instrument of His peace
December 11, 2020
Just like Goodreads says - It was AMAZING! I really connected to this collection in a way that I haven't with other poetry collections I've read so far (very small number!). Don't let it's title or picture make you believe this is only a poetry collection for believers. These are really intriguing and well-written poems.
May 20, 2015
There are a few of her poems that resonate with me deeply and I appreciate her coming to her religious beliefs from a field mine of unbelief and sin. Poetry and faith do walk hand in hand at the same time that they are often doing battle, which is true of any spiritual gift, the two sides are always warring for that gift. In the essay that she winds the book up with, she speaks of that war using two quotes, "You were not meant for pleasure, you were meant for joy" by Thomas Merton and "The purpose of poetry is disenchantment" by W.H. Auden. I appreciated the way she describes the battle that wages within her. I loved one of her ending statements in the essay.
"I know, I know, my skeptical read. It's only my naive faith that makes such a simple request (times three) seem like a tap on the shoulder from the Almighty, but for one whose experience of joy has come in middle age on the rent and tattered wings of depression and disbelief, it suffices. Having devoted the first half of my life to the dark, I feel obliged to locate any pinpoint of light now. And writing this essay did fling open a window so some column of sun shone down on me again. When I hit my knees again during Let, I felt God's sturdy presence, and I knew right off it wasn't God who'd checked out in the first place."
"I know, I know, my skeptical read. It's only my naive faith that makes such a simple request (times three) seem like a tap on the shoulder from the Almighty, but for one whose experience of joy has come in middle age on the rent and tattered wings of depression and disbelief, it suffices. Having devoted the first half of my life to the dark, I feel obliged to locate any pinpoint of light now. And writing this essay did fling open a window so some column of sun shone down on me again. When I hit my knees again during Let, I felt God's sturdy presence, and I knew right off it wasn't God who'd checked out in the first place."
February 8, 2015
Mary Karr's poetry collection, like her memoirs, did not disappoint me. In fact, I am floored by her ability to write such beautiful poems so honestly and concretely. Her voice is so distinct, I can hear her words tinged by her Texas upbringing yet informed by her many years of reading and studying literature and poetry and her own writing and devotion to words. Besides the poetry itself, the Afterword at the end, the essay called "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer" that had been published elsewhere as well, unifies the poems themselves and their subject of struggling with faith and the role of poetry itself as a way towards the holy. What an amazing work that I am so glad I own. I will be rereading these poems in years to come.
May 1, 2021
Mary Karr is known for her quick wit and exciting descriptions from an impossible cynical point of view. That being said, she is very much able to draw hope and resolution from a surprisingly bleak point of view. From her life as a child, darkened and bruised, to an irreverent Christian who can impress even the most devout worshiper. Her work has won many awards and while this is not the first collection of poems, it certainly deserves to be called her best work. I have raised this book 5 stars for its powerful themes and excellent descriptions. For anybody who likes to read, even you hate poetry, this book is worth your time.
July 21, 2007
Mary Karr's poetry is fresh and full of life. I particularly enjoyed her several "Descending Theology..." poems scattered throughout. This book is worth the afterword alone that includes an essay she wrote for Poetry entitled, "Facing Altars: Poetry and Prayer."
Read
February 17, 2011this collection includes a poem about john engman. for a time, she slept on his couch. in minneapolis. love that. a lot.
April 4, 2022
favorite book this year so far
February 2, 2020
The fourth volume of poetry by noted memoirist Mary Karr. Karr is known more for her memoirs than her poetry, but Sinners Welcome demonstrates the close link between the two forms, how both seek to make sense of and find meaning in our lives. This volume is dedicated to her sister Lecia, who we memorably first met in the memoir Liars' Club. The two books inform each other, cross-pollinate, expand on and explore themes raised in each. Karr also writes in a straightforward effort to communicate. Her poems are accessible even to those who don't like poetry (only a couple are less accessible). The poems benefit by a couple of readings, but Sinners Welcome can be read straight through like a novel. I wouldn't recommend that, as the poems deserve a chance to percolate through your thoughts. Most of the poetry here is of high quality, making connections, opening eyes and minds. There are some clunkers, but I even appreciate those because most are efforts at something different, experiments, trying to make it new. The theme of the book as may be guessed from the title, is religion, more specifically her conversion to Catholicism ten years before. But Karr is not prissy, prudish, or judgmental -- never holier than thou. She's no Fanny Price or Agnes Grey. She knows that religion must rise above small human failings, and Karr has more than her share of small human failings. An excellent book, one that any fan of her memoirs should enjoy and appreciate.
January 7, 2020
I enjoyed reading my first collection to Mary Karr's poetry. Her language and thoughts are sharp, raw, sensitive. Her perspective and imagery is unexpected, challenging. Having not yet read her memoirs, I already know her mother is someone I would not like! Her unusual coming to God through the Catholic church fascinates me, to see the ways in which God has worked in her life and is using her unique voice in painting portraits of Him in this collection.
In fact, her essay on Poetry and Faith (which comprises the last third of the pages of this slim volume) was perhaps my favorite part of the book. Her poetry shines in her descriptions of various key memories in her life which God has used to shape her, guide her, call her, bring her to her knees before Him.
If you like reading poetry and are interested in the intersection of faith and art, I highly recommend this book.
In fact, her essay on Poetry and Faith (which comprises the last third of the pages of this slim volume) was perhaps my favorite part of the book. Her poetry shines in her descriptions of various key memories in her life which God has used to shape her, guide her, call her, bring her to her knees before Him.
If you like reading poetry and are interested in the intersection of faith and art, I highly recommend this book.
April 17, 2017
93pp. I heard her speak. She is a good speaker. I started two books and finished this one. She is a good writer. I think it maybe timing, but I couldn't get into Liar's Club. She is the mother of memoir as a genre. I didn't love every poem in this collection, but put stars that look more like dandelion heads gone to seed next to a few. Here's one I marked.
THIS LESSON YOU'VE GOT
to learn is the someday you'll someday
stagger to, blinking in cold light, all tears
shed, ready to poke your bovine head
in the yoke they've shaped.
Everyone learns this. Born, everyone
breathes, pays tax, plants dead
and hurts galore. There's grief enough
for each. My mother
learned by moving man to man,
outlived them all. The parched earth's
bare (once she leaves it) of any who watched
the instants I trod it.
Other than myself, of course.
I've made a study of bearing
and forbearance. Everyone does,
it turns out, and note
those faces passing by; Not one's a god.
THIS LESSON YOU'VE GOT
to learn is the someday you'll someday
stagger to, blinking in cold light, all tears
shed, ready to poke your bovine head
in the yoke they've shaped.
Everyone learns this. Born, everyone
breathes, pays tax, plants dead
and hurts galore. There's grief enough
for each. My mother
learned by moving man to man,
outlived them all. The parched earth's
bare (once she leaves it) of any who watched
the instants I trod it.
Other than myself, of course.
I've made a study of bearing
and forbearance. Everyone does,
it turns out, and note
those faces passing by; Not one's a god.
May 22, 2022
This collection as a whole fell short for me, though the first 20ish pages felt alive and full of sparks. Throughout the rest, it was clunky and awkward. Even the essay at the end of the collection, on poetry and faith, didn’t land for me. It felt meandering and feisty, not inspirational or pragmatic. Maybe my expectations were too high because I like Mary Karr and I wanted very much to like this collection.
March 8, 2022
He loved his women drugged enough to pin like bugs, and found one starved:
picture a death's head in a velvet cape, the only one he didn't kill, since she came dead already.
I’ve never read religious poetry before so this was quite a ride ! The way everything was described was so beautiful and holy.
December 11, 2019
Here's a writer that I admire mightily (two of her memoirs on my shelf at home as a testament to my faith in her) writing a book I was fairly lukewarm toward. I'm still waiting for that religious book that articulates my feelings, which is why I suppose the good Lord invented pencils and gave me glasses.
December 4, 2021
"There's the wide vermilion sky that cradled us before birth, and the sun pours its golden sap to preserve me like His precious insect."
April 14, 2024
Bought at Northland Library Spring Book Sale 5/6/2023
October 5, 2011
Long Book Review - Sinners Welcome - Mary Karr
Finding Herself.
‘Sinner’s Welcome’ is a collection of poetry by the talented Mary Karr. It is brimming with her memories, stories and secrets all compiled into one fascinating book. It’s her fourth collection of poems and if you search deep enough within her words, Karr will allow you to experience her own personal memories and hear her thoughts. The title of the book ‘Sinners Welcome’ drew me in because it sounded interesting. She was directing this book of poetry towards sinners. Well, I found myself asking, aren’t we all sinners? What could these poems be about? Karr seemed to be welcoming and summoning you to read on.
I soon discovered her tormented childhood and her words that reflected her spiritual journey into Catholicism. Without much knowledge of her background this poetry was sometimes hard to devour and understand, but after a little research and a more thorough reading, I began to develop a clearer understanding. I soon decided on my two favorite poems, ‘The Choice’ and ‘Sinners Welcome.’ I chose ‘The Choice’ because it immediately brought back memories of my own when she mentioned the pub in northern England. My British heritage came to life and I was suddenly absorbed into the poem. I loved the line “Near dawn, our caravan came to a sleet-glazed window.” I was taken back in time, to my own winter trips in the caravan with my family. I also liked the line “She touched my folio with her pencil like a bad fairy’s wand.” Karr has a unique writing style and she uses different writing techniques in her work. For example in this line, she uses a simile that compares the pencil to a bad fairy’s wand, and you find your imagination running wild and leaping between fantasy and reality, from fairy to real woman. Some of Karr’s writing is relatable to most people and some of it is more personal to her. Whether it is relatable or not, it is interesting to read. She shares so many struggles and stories in these 93 pages. One that particularly stood out to me was in the line, “And in a blink of my un-mascara’ed eye the intricate world bloomed into being—impossible to transcribe on the small bare page.” This describes that one small moment when everything makes sense to a child, it makes so much sense but even as a young writer, you have no idea how to possibly put it all into words. Even though Karr did not put this in words, she managed to make us understand. I think this is a talent that Karr possesses, she can use few words, but in these few words she can say so much.
My other favorite poem was ‘Sinners Welcome,’ because I was curious as to why she chose this poem’s title to name the entire collection. What is special about this particular poem? In my interpretation, ‘Sinners Welcome’ is about sinning, primarily the sin of sex before marriage. Karr describes a very personal memory of hers in few words that spark a fire of vivid detail within the reader’s mind. I loved the first line, “I opened up my shirt to show this man the flaming heart he lit in me.” Although she implies by the title and the writing that this sexual act was a sin, she highlights the romance and emotion behind it by simply explaining that instead of opening up her shirt as a sexual act, it was more an act of love, to show him her passion-filled, flaming heart.
These poems could help many religious and non-religious people learn to accept their sins and embrace their journey of finding themselves; just as Karr let us take passenger seat and watch her sinful yet spiritual journey unfold through the windshield as she finds herself.
Finding Herself.
‘Sinner’s Welcome’ is a collection of poetry by the talented Mary Karr. It is brimming with her memories, stories and secrets all compiled into one fascinating book. It’s her fourth collection of poems and if you search deep enough within her words, Karr will allow you to experience her own personal memories and hear her thoughts. The title of the book ‘Sinners Welcome’ drew me in because it sounded interesting. She was directing this book of poetry towards sinners. Well, I found myself asking, aren’t we all sinners? What could these poems be about? Karr seemed to be welcoming and summoning you to read on.
I soon discovered her tormented childhood and her words that reflected her spiritual journey into Catholicism. Without much knowledge of her background this poetry was sometimes hard to devour and understand, but after a little research and a more thorough reading, I began to develop a clearer understanding. I soon decided on my two favorite poems, ‘The Choice’ and ‘Sinners Welcome.’ I chose ‘The Choice’ because it immediately brought back memories of my own when she mentioned the pub in northern England. My British heritage came to life and I was suddenly absorbed into the poem. I loved the line “Near dawn, our caravan came to a sleet-glazed window.” I was taken back in time, to my own winter trips in the caravan with my family. I also liked the line “She touched my folio with her pencil like a bad fairy’s wand.” Karr has a unique writing style and she uses different writing techniques in her work. For example in this line, she uses a simile that compares the pencil to a bad fairy’s wand, and you find your imagination running wild and leaping between fantasy and reality, from fairy to real woman. Some of Karr’s writing is relatable to most people and some of it is more personal to her. Whether it is relatable or not, it is interesting to read. She shares so many struggles and stories in these 93 pages. One that particularly stood out to me was in the line, “And in a blink of my un-mascara’ed eye the intricate world bloomed into being—impossible to transcribe on the small bare page.” This describes that one small moment when everything makes sense to a child, it makes so much sense but even as a young writer, you have no idea how to possibly put it all into words. Even though Karr did not put this in words, she managed to make us understand. I think this is a talent that Karr possesses, she can use few words, but in these few words she can say so much.
My other favorite poem was ‘Sinners Welcome,’ because I was curious as to why she chose this poem’s title to name the entire collection. What is special about this particular poem? In my interpretation, ‘Sinners Welcome’ is about sinning, primarily the sin of sex before marriage. Karr describes a very personal memory of hers in few words that spark a fire of vivid detail within the reader’s mind. I loved the first line, “I opened up my shirt to show this man the flaming heart he lit in me.” Although she implies by the title and the writing that this sexual act was a sin, she highlights the romance and emotion behind it by simply explaining that instead of opening up her shirt as a sexual act, it was more an act of love, to show him her passion-filled, flaming heart.
These poems could help many religious and non-religious people learn to accept their sins and embrace their journey of finding themselves; just as Karr let us take passenger seat and watch her sinful yet spiritual journey unfold through the windshield as she finds herself.
August 10, 2016
Sinners Welcome consists of emotional, powerful, and compelling poems that draw the readers into the book. Although it may seem difficult to comprehend at first, you will soon realize that you are empathizing with Mary Karr, if you've ever had the experience of a loss of something meaningful and important. I was surprised and somewhat shocked at her use of diction and comparisons to describe the situation. For example, one of the poems that I most empathized with was "Métaphysique Du Mal". It starts by comparing the globe to a "quadrangled" board, where "you" sometimes feel as though you were mere pushpins. And this is true, since I also sometimes felt too small in the wide world. Using alliteration and vivid imagery, Karr builds the events following her friend's death, that explain for her feeling "impossibly small". She writes of how everything seemed to be "glazed in place", as if time had stopped. The setting is cold, and therefore it is as if everything is frozen. However, once the funeral is over, the time ticks too quickly and forces the author to admit that it is over. A friend's death had become so insignificant over time to the world. Having experienced death of a close relative and a friend's mother, I had to agree with the poem. Another poem that made a strong impression on me was "This Lesson You've Got". The poem teachers the readers that everyone else learns from life what you learn, and that you are never an exception to something. Once you're "born", we're all equal and same. But Karr twists it at the end as if she -- representing "we" -- is the exception: "Other than myself, of course", but quickly twists it back again with the phrase, "Everyone does, it turns out". She ends the poem with a simple but powerful sentence, "Not one's a god". "Orders from the Invisible" was intriguing to read and interpret as well. It is about a man she loves, who grew distant; the signs "Insert coin", "Mind the gap", and "Do not disturb" all serve to emphasize his change of attitude. While eating, the cook's window with "steam smearing" reminds her of the time when she left the airport on the plane, and how the windows glass turned to "a pearly cataract". She hasn't checked his email, which will definitely hurt him as she learned from the Bible, and she concedes to the orders from the invisible: Press yes to erase.
And finally, "Sinners Welcome" was both sad and funny at the same time -- overall, bitter. A woman gives all her mind to a man who is worthy of respect. He would kneel to her and not fall into any temptations. However, she would never be together with him. It's almost a spontaneous reaction: if they love, "joy sprouts from [them] as from a split seed", as in they must be separated.
An interesting thing about her poems is that it could be interpreted in many other ways. My interpretations could not be in accordance with her original intentions, and I could interpret it the other way around the next time I read it.
For all these poems, I read them more than five times to really find out the significant symbols and words she crafted in. There's always one or two new meaning that you can find out each time you read them. Different interpretations, new ideas, deeper meanings. These aspects are what render her poems unique and powerful.
And finally, "Sinners Welcome" was both sad and funny at the same time -- overall, bitter. A woman gives all her mind to a man who is worthy of respect. He would kneel to her and not fall into any temptations. However, she would never be together with him. It's almost a spontaneous reaction: if they love, "joy sprouts from [them] as from a split seed", as in they must be separated.
An interesting thing about her poems is that it could be interpreted in many other ways. My interpretations could not be in accordance with her original intentions, and I could interpret it the other way around the next time I read it.
For all these poems, I read them more than five times to really find out the significant symbols and words she crafted in. There's always one or two new meaning that you can find out each time you read them. Different interpretations, new ideas, deeper meanings. These aspects are what render her poems unique and powerful.
August 6, 2016
So. Before reading this poetry, I had seriously no prior knowledge of who the author was, or what this poetry was going to be about—just that it is about the author, Mary Karr, who is going through quite a number of hardships, just as the summary stated. I simply chose this book thinking that it would be interesting to see a person’s life through the format of poetry, and the title itself too was intriguing. However, even though it was difficult at first, there was so much more than just Karr telling her own stories to the authors. Other than the story-telling portion itself, all of the poems included in this book holds the lessons and all the background that led to such writing. It truly was an insight of who Mary Karr as a person encountered in her lifetime. However, there are the latent portion of how all these events from her childhood and her awful moments in life is her connection and rather spiritual journey towards Catholicism. The book is filled with great imageries, descriptive pictures of what Karr has gone through, and how the events in her life somehow made her unexpectedly Catholic. There isn’t a single poem in this book that can be simply interpreted—everytime read gives the reader a completely different meaning laying underneath Karr’s words.
Whilst reading this poem, there were several poems that stuck to my mind. First, ‘The Lesson You’ve Got’, is a poem that truly shows who she was before she encountered Catholicism. She strictly and coldly states that everyone will eventually come to moments where they realize they have grief for potentially everything they encounter in their lives. This specific poem was a good indication showing how she learned these lessons through the rather hard way than others. Next, ‘The First Step’, contains words and lines that actually look like her true opinion about encountering religion. She never specifies who the “you” is, but it was pretty self-explanatory once you get an idea of what this whole book is about. Lastly, ‘A Blessing From My Sixteen Years’ Son’ really showed what kind of mother she is. By writing a lot more narrative about her son, it really gave me the idea of who she is as a mom, than look at her through the lens of religion.
Overall, this whole book contain poetry that are quite straight-forward. I did not have so much difficulty understanding what the significance of the title was compared to the content of the poems. However, once I read some of the poems more than once, the latent meanings of what the poems really convey becomes more apparent. Towards the end, you really get the sense of why she named this whole book as “Sinners Welcome”. Maybe all sinners are welcomed by the world, and we just do not see it as clearly.
Whilst reading this poem, there were several poems that stuck to my mind. First, ‘The Lesson You’ve Got’, is a poem that truly shows who she was before she encountered Catholicism. She strictly and coldly states that everyone will eventually come to moments where they realize they have grief for potentially everything they encounter in their lives. This specific poem was a good indication showing how she learned these lessons through the rather hard way than others. Next, ‘The First Step’, contains words and lines that actually look like her true opinion about encountering religion. She never specifies who the “you” is, but it was pretty self-explanatory once you get an idea of what this whole book is about. Lastly, ‘A Blessing From My Sixteen Years’ Son’ really showed what kind of mother she is. By writing a lot more narrative about her son, it really gave me the idea of who she is as a mom, than look at her through the lens of religion.
Overall, this whole book contain poetry that are quite straight-forward. I did not have so much difficulty understanding what the significance of the title was compared to the content of the poems. However, once I read some of the poems more than once, the latent meanings of what the poems really convey becomes more apparent. Towards the end, you really get the sense of why she named this whole book as “Sinners Welcome”. Maybe all sinners are welcomed by the world, and we just do not see it as clearly.
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