Lapis: Poems by Robert Kelly

by Robert Kelly

Lapis, the philosopher's stone, is the legendary substance that alchemists use to turn base metals into gold. Robert Kelly's 50-year pursuit of its poetic equivalent--the words that transform the common things of life into art--yields the 127 new texts collected here. In these richly varied poems and prose poems-some occasioned by reading Dickinson and Yeats, visiting churches and art museums, traveling through Austria, France, Italy, and Ireland, and reliving the wounds of childhood and adolescence--Kelly describes personal experience and, by touching it with memory and imagination, makes it stranger than life itself. He is the diarist as dreamer, and the dreamer as alchemist.
The range of Kelly's interests and formal competence is enormous. He is inventive in the way that Picasso was: he can improvise intelligently and imaginatively on anything that strikes his ear, heart, or gaze. Kelly thinks of the poet as a scientist of holistic understanding, a world scholar to whom all data whatsoever is of use.

Genres: Poetry

221 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Kelly has published more than fifty books of poetry and prose, including Red Actions: Selected Poems 1960-1993 (1995) and a collection of short fictions, A Transparent Tree (1985). Many were published by the Black Sparrow Press. He also edited the anthology A Controversy of Poets (1965).Kelly was of great help to the Hungryalist group of poets of India during the trial of Malay Roychoudhury,with whom he had correspondence,now archived at Kolkata.

Kelly received the Los Angeles Times First Annual Book Award (1980) for Kill the Messenger Who Brings Bad News and the American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation (1991) for In Time.

Reviews

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

not only is he brilliant, he's my uncle.

[Ivva Tadiashvili · Rating 4 out of 5]

ვაუ, მეგობარმა პოეტებმა მაჩუქეს და გამაცნეს რობერტ კელი. პირველი შეხვედრისთვის, ასეთი პატარა წიგნით მგონი მეტისმეყი სიმპათია გამიჩნდა. თავიდან ვერ დავუმუღამე, მაგრამ ხმამაღლა ვკითხულობდი და მისწორდებოდა. მერე ერთ ლექსს აურათი გადავუღე და სადაც 2 წუთს გამოვნახავდი, ტელეფონში ვკითხულობდი. ბევრჯერ წავიკითხე ეგ ერთი ლექსი, 15 ჯერ ალბათ და ყოველ წაკითხვაზდ უფრო და უფრო მომწონდა. რობერტ კელი ცოცხალია და იმედია მეც შემხვდება სიზმარში ოდესმე.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I confess that I was a student of Robert Kelly's, so my reading of his work tends to be a mixture of acute appreciation and exasperation. Exasperation because any poet who writes as much as RK does will surely develop habitual gestures. Yet, this collection reminded me once again that there are few if any poets forging ahead as Robert does to attend to the urgency and mystery of spirit and body. His humor, intelligence and searchingness mean that even the weakest poems here have elements that one can profitably return to many times. (And one must always check the author photo at the back of a Kelly book to watch the ongoing evolution of his remarkable eyebrows.)

from "Casida of Milk":

An animal is anything that makes us think

I am an animal that not so long ago was you
Curvature of light around a broken vase is whole

The answer was looking for me while I hid in the woods
The answer trickled down my back while you mopped my brow

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book--one of the best of the best from Robert Kelly's hefty list of titles. Though I'm a huge Kelly fan, apparently I'm two years late in reading this book and am just getting to it now. I have not been able to put it down. He's at the height of his powers here--Kelly at both his most cosmic yet tender self. Robert Kelly has long been one of the best kept secrets in American poetry. This offering shows that a life of devoted practice--of keeping "the work" front and center--is richly rewarded (and rewarding). I cannot recommend this book highly enough.