Drinking from the River: New & Selected Poems, 1975–2015

by Chip Dameron

This collection of poems documents the evolution of a talented and original Texan poet through his 40-year career. A seminal figure in the small press movement of the 1960s and ’70s in Texas, Charles “Chip” Dameron’s work is well-known among older Texas readers. In it he explores the complexities of the inner and outer worlds, whether writing about love, death, a bird’s wing, or a painting’s energy. He is both an introspective lyric poet and an environmentally sensitive observer, both globally and in his native Rio Grande Valley. This mature collection contains the best of the poet’s earlier work as well as a number of new poems that reflect his latest preoccupations.

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Michael Putegnat · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to understand the Texan personal, Chip Dameron's poetry is a good place to start. When you read his broad collection of works, though, you see the world through his eyes and ears. Music a cappella for the soul.

[Wayne Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fine selection of Dameron's poetry. His poems while accessible offer unexpected insights. He creates striking images from what most of us find as ordinary.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brownsville resident and critically acclaimed poet Chip Dameron, whose work I’ve reviewed before, has a new collection out this year: Drinking from the River: New & Selected Poems, 1975-2015. Forty years is quite a milestone and Dameron has pulled together an impressive cross-section of his work, which ranges wide with an assured hand from impressionistic lyric to sparse narrative and evocative emphasis. Thematically diverse, these poems evince Dameron’s keen eye for the natural and human spheres and his love not only of Texas, but of the wider world he has traveled.

Of his new poems, I especially loved the eponymous and haunting “Drinking from the River” and the melancholy “Speaking of Language.” A must-have addition for any collector of great Texas verse.