Resurrection Update: Collected Poems, 1975-1997

by James Galvin

The complete works of an extraordinary poet who consistently refines the notion of what constitutes an American sound.

Genres: Poetry

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

Reviews

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

sexy, woodsy grandpa shit.

[M.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by a friend. For about the first third I thought, yeah, this is good, but not head-and-shoulders-above-the-rest good. Then it got head-and-shoulders-above-most-other-contemporary-poets good, really striking, beautiful images, a few images that really just sock you in the gut, really intelligent poems, beautifully crafted. Smart and quietly searing, they really conjure an atmosphere, their own world.

[Previous TCL Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Galvin, is for me, a poet of place. He grew up in Northern Colorado, and now divides his time between Iowa City where he is a professor at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and Tie Siding, Wyoming where he works as a rancher for a portion of each year. Mr. Galvin’s poems should be part of any Wyomingite’s reading (whether as a new addition to a list or a classic, as his works have become for me). His work is philosophical, but remains grounded in the reality of the natural world. He does not privilege human reality over that of the environment, and his poetic voice is one that is, at once, both stoic and romantic. His words are material representations that also function to mirror the dichotomies of our state; they also mirror what is deeply human and personal about the kind of special evocation each of us might feel as residents here. His work is immanently relatable; one engages with it on a real and felt level – we recognize our experience in it. In addition to observing the underlying resonance of his words in this manner, for me, there is a humility and sometimes spiritual reverence in the gaze he directs toward the land and its people. While Mr. Galvin would likely resent being characterized as a “Western poet,” his work, in terms of its sensibility, humor, and reserved expressiveness, embodies much of what I value and find most true about having grown up in Wyoming. Readers might also enjoy his well-regarded work of non-fiction, “The Meadow,” which Mr. Galvin wrote for his daughter in order to teach her about the land and people (the way of life, really) of the Northern Colorado country in which he grew up.

Teton County Library Call No: 811.54 GALVIN
Review written by: Brie Richardson

[AdultNonFiction Teton County Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Teton County Library Call No: 811.54 GALVIN
Brie's rating: 4 stars

James Galvin, is for me, a poet of place. He grew up in Northern Colorado, and now divides his time between Iowa City where he is a professor at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and Tie Siding, Wyoming where he works as a rancher for a portion of each year. Mr. Galvin’s poems should be part of any Wyomingite’s reading (whether as a new addition to a list or a classic, as his works have become for me). His work is philosophical, but remains grounded in the reality of the natural world. He does not privilege human reality over that of the environment, and his poetic voice is one that is, at once, both stoic and romantic. His words are material representations that also function to mirror the dichotomies of our state; they also mirror what is deeply human and personal about the kind of special evocation each of us might feel as residents here. His work is immanently relatable; one engages with it on a real and felt level – we recognize our experience in it. In addition to observing the underlying resonance of his words in this manner, for me, there is a humility and sometimes spiritual reverence in the gaze he directs toward the land and its people. While Mr. Galvin would likely resent being characterized as a “Western poet,” his work, in terms of its sensibility, humor, and reserved expressiveness, embodies much of what I value and find most true about having grown up in Wyoming. Readers might also enjoy his well-regarded work of non-fiction, “The Meadow,” which Mr. Galvin wrote for his daughter in order to teach her about the land and people (the way of life, really) of the Northern Colorado country in which he grew up.

[John Pappas · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can almost smell the spruce and scrub grass when Galvin describes the lonely landscapes of the West, and the men and women who wander under the winter sky, in his collected works through 1997. Ranging from the prescient and observant to the abstract and surreal, these poems capture a range of feelings and experiences, but nowhere are they more acute and moving than in the prose poems in the first section of this book, Imaginary Timber, and scattered throughout the rest of these collected works. Franz Wright recommended these poems and it is easy to see why.

[David Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not since Ted Hugh's, Birthday Letters, have I been so captivated with a poet. Galvin's work is simultaneously the metaphysical musing and the visceral moving that gathers the soul and lovingly tugs it through a western landscape that is as beautiful as it is devastating.

[Brian Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

james galvin is probably my favorite living poet. yeah. probably.

[Craig Morgan Teicher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everybody needs this.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful gathering of Galvin's poems (selected).

[Brian Beatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may not be my favorite retrospective collection of a poet's oeuvre, but I return to it the most.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: Hermits, Virga, Water Table, Rubber Angel.

[Makenna Dickey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love James Galvin. Learned to love poetry from his work. But I’ll admit it, lots of it goes over my head. I’m not that cool.

[Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Galvin has a starkly beautiful way of writing. His poems can cut through you. There are some incredible poems in this collection, but I was disappointed overall. Then again, after reading the opus that is "X", I was probably destined for a letdown.