The Book of Endings

by Leslie Harrison

The poems in The Book of Endings try to make sense of, or at least come to some kind of reckoning with absence--the death of the author's mother, the absence of the beloved, the absence of an accountable god, cicadas, the dead stars arriving, the dead moon aglow in the night sky.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Hardcover

First published January 6, 2017

Reviews

[Renee Godding · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book of Endings is a remarkable poetry collection on the loss and grief the author experienced, following the death of her mother.
It’s a melancholic collection that used beautiful imagery and some striking language, that should have been right up my alley. Unfortunately, despite all the good, I can’t say I enjoyed my time reading it.
My problem lies with the weird line breaks and complete lack of any punctuation. Perhaps it’s the fact that English isn’t my first language, but this made it quite excruciating for me to read. I had to go through every poem twice, adding punctuation in my mind to even understand what it said. Once I did, most of it was great, yet the whole process made for such an uncomfortable reading experience that it literally gave me a headache at times.
I hope and imagine others (especially native English speakers) might not have that problem. If it hadn’t been for this, I might have loved it.

[Jerrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found a copy of this book of poems that is short listed for the National Book Award on Hoopla, and I loved it so much I bought my own copy. It’s probably my favorite book of poems I’ve read this year. As the title implies, these poems are a profound look at impermanence in our lives and our world. It was a little hard to read at first due to lack of punctuation and strange line breaks, but don’t let that throw you off. These are beautiful. 💕💕

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

The style the author uses without standard line breaks and punctuation required me to read this in a whisper to myself. It often felt like a stream of thoughts or prayers. The copy I read was from the library, but I'm ordering one to keep.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Considering this was a National Book Award finalist for poetry I was expecting much more... May have just been the style - lots of repetitions of phrases and weird line breaks.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"to say your heart is broken is to translocate sorrow
to honor the stutter you carry always in its own cage"
(21)

I spent SO LONG with Harrison's book because it's a powerful collection of grief / obsession / rewinding time. Repetition repetition repetition: the moon / water / horses / hearts beating thin fists.

"Because in all your life you’ve lived always the same twelve hours
though you remember them otherwise the years with their numbers
the months the anonymous weeks"
(68)

The grief spills and the language keeps beating to communicate.

"For I have loved the blade with all my crippled
with all my awkward soul loved it for the shine
sheen for the ease and grace of doing what it was
made to do for I have loved the stubborn womb
its beloved intent have loved the hope and then
learned to love the lack for I have loved the water
the way it comes to me comes for me in all its
liquid mystery for I have loved what the water
loves"
(27)

My favorite book of poetry in a long time. Read Harrison if you like Brenda Shaughnessy.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poet asks, “How does one make sense of the ending of everything?” The end of a poem? The end of a book? The end to the day? The end to love and/or a relationship? The end of a parent’s (mother’s) life? How does one fill the emptiness of life when the vast, endless universe is silent and filled with stars that seem to lack purpose other than to shine? “The Book of Endings” provides a glimpse into the answer and posits that an ending of anything and everything is a premonition to our inevitable demise.

The form of writing here smacks of stream of consciousness which, at times, comes across obtuse and at other times “dead on” — no pun intended. There are many poems in here to like and admire — for example “Take eat” and “The orphan child eats blueberries in Vermont” and “Otzi” and “Parable (1st)” — which, despite it’s often obtuse and difficult to read format, made this a four (4) star book worthy of it’s 2017 nomination for the NBA in Poetry.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful collection. I love Harrison's style. Her use of the absence of punctuation is brilliant and consistently rewards the extra effort it requires of the reader. (You also grow to appreciate how much more attentive it trains you to be, page by page.)

It's also true that I'm pretty vulnerable to the subject of these poems at the moment, but I'm pretty sure they're actually good and not just that I needed them right now.

[Maddie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truthfully, the structure of these poems was terrible. The line lengths were too long and with no punctuation or rather no proper breaks/spacing between thoughts made it hard to focus on the content.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by a caller on Beautiful/Anonymous. Glad I found it.

[Pure heroine · Rating 1 out of 5]

i'm not an expert in poetry but what the f is this?

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm very torn on how to rate this one.

I absolutely loved many of the poems in it (ie Touch Me Now, Epiphany...) but it was difficult for me to read at points, somewhat off-putting.

I've written before about how I dislike poetry without punctuation, so this is nothing new. But I felt lost without any sort of punctuation in these poems.

And yet I found myself drawn in to most of the poems, even with this lack.

I recommend this collection, particularly if you don't have my particular hangup over lack of punctuation. It's an intriguing collection and one that I feel I will return to...

[Michael Downs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning, intense and beautiful achievement. I read every poem out loud, because I don't know any other way to take in these small explosions, their finespun imagery and the profound emotions they create. These line wrestle with grief and love for individuals and for the world, honest about pain but honest, too, about the need and rewards that life brings us. "... teach me how to hold on / to all of this," the poet writes, "teach me please oh lord how to let go".

[Patti K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harrison's second volume of poetry was published in 2017. All the
poems have the first line in brackets as the title. There is always a subtext
and all is fluid. She does not use punctuation and the words become like
a chant. All is movement, flux, uncertainty. The poems are very engaging
and provoke many ideas and notions. Well-written to the extent that this
book was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry in 2017. Recommend.

[Alex]

‘… oh slight soul teach me how to hold on to all of this teach me please… how to let go’

‘… abiding requires more hope than I can possibly acquire that hope is not a thing with feathers that hope is a thing with a fist a thin crust sketched over oceans that hope is what despair uses for bait come in hope says the water’s fine that hope is the blood with which you write letters that start dear sea dear ocean stop asking so fucking much that hope is a telegram delivered by men in pairs men in uniform a telegram that says missing stop that says once again presumed lost stop’

‘… stop trying to forget remember all the time for ever the sound of his voice remember as if it were the last light before you were blind and I would say but wait what is a voice what is light they are uninhabitable you cannot live there and he would say yes and he would say remember as if it were the only perfect light…’

‘… for I have loved… the hope and then learned to love the lack…’

‘… oh mother it is cold tonight and I have no heart for this burning for the fine sift of ash which is all that comes back all that comes after…’

‘I laced the world in water water in ice ice in long slow nights ancient and faintly aglow I gave you this world gave you who are also mostly water into this world candled your souls against the ice and the dark matter against the fields strewn with artifacts and timothy- grass fields deep with creatures with star-shaped with star intoxicated flowers I made the heavens and set them to rain set the moon like a clock passing often into shadow I filled the least and the greatest places with secret creatures let you read in stone my own book of the dead I gave the serpent a tongue so that you might learn to speak I wanted you to love his sad machinations his thousand thousand ribs like some holy cathedral some architecture of tunnel gate and teeth I made your bodies gorgeous made you as arrows and fletched your hearts with his sturdy circling ribs listen as all my beloved creatures whisper and call through the sun through snow listen to the wind coming in listen hard and someone will name the bow’

‘… going down in snowflake fire… as if broken were just another glittering season into which.. you stare to see a sky quiet and on fire in this winter of no more miracles in this season of so much beauty such harm’

‘the page is funnel pitcher or cloud into which I keep pouring the trees the listing birds the way they keep refusing to mean the way I want to mean anything other than this other than this much silence the way the page both contains refuses the stain’

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read these poems twice.

The first time, they didn't grab me. I could tell they were good. Strong metaphor, a rhythm, I enjoyed the sound of the words on my tongue.

It took a second reading for me to really appreciate the emotional depth in these poems. A Book of Endings. Of course, there is grief and rage here. Harrison wrote many of these poems after the death of her mother. I read again and finally felt the beauty in the sadness. "I would visit your grave but your grave is a single blue/ afternoon of passing isles the green and granite shores/ I would come to your grave but your grave is the fire/oh mother it is cold tonight and I have no heart"

I have not lost a parent but in other ways, I know loss and grief. These poems lament, shouting at God and describe a dull ache.

[Mads · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve heard the brain referred to as a “meaning-making machine.” “The Book of Endings” felt like listening to the speaker’s meaning-making machine whirr. The poems explore grief in every sense: a poem, a life, a relationship, a season, a world – often through the lens of the natural world and organized religion. The element of restraint runs through this otherwise vulnerable work in some technical aspects (always double-spaced, often careful B-rhymes or quasi-homophones, an ability to somehow slow down run-on sentences) but also through the choice of those lenses. Many lines and poems will linger with me, but most of all the way the last poem begins with “And I want to say,” this refrain echoing throughout. It is a startling and grounding beginning to the end of a book processing endings.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly I found the formatting of the poems hard to read at first. I was trying to find a common structure between poems that would help me grasp at the understanding of the words written on the pages. I learned how to go with the flow and just accept the words as written without trying so hard to look for a structure/format to the poems and that helped. I find that some of these poems are relatable in a way as I too have known loss. One of the first poems I fell in love with was "I would drive to your grave" (p. 9). These words definitely gives you something to take your time with and reflect on while reading.

[Jena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I suppose the lack of punctuation adds to the sensation of figuratively drowning, of being lost (as in grief), but it made reading the whole punctuationless collection so hard for me to get through. A few favorite parts:...someone got too close to danger sirens are the past tenseof rescue meaning clean-up in aisle three wherethe glass racks have fallen before the mast where the searose up between the meat and the waiting where the bedrefused as usual to become the boat... (Sirens)...because what if the soul's deciduous (Let the Blue Earth Spin)

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not one for poetry, and most often than not I'm way harsher than I need to be with it. I got this collection due to the title -- the holidays tend to be a downer for me -- and the fact that it was a collection themed around death, loss & grief.

It was not at all what I wanted/need. The style was not for me, I found no comfort (not that I really was expecting any) nor any form of sympathy or emotion.

Low key, I actually thought it may be decent considering it's an award winner, but nah. To me, it was just bland.

[Mike Hammer · Rating 5 out of 5]

These are fantastic poems - intelligent, thoughtful, deep, fun, very lyrical with fantastic turns of phrases. A plethora of great lines. Definitely a book to buy for anyone who appreciates the fine craftsmanship of words, the flow, the connection between the ages, the feelings we all have and the beauty we often discover. Great collection

[Tara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Eh, I was not into this style of poetry, there are some beautiful phrases and lines, but overall the style is really hard to read- the line breaks aren't at the end of a phrase, but somewhere random in the middle, sometimes it works as a stream of consciousness and other times I felt like I was editing, not reading. Also too many religious references, not into it.

[Tori Hook · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s no question that Harrison shows incredible mastery of language, but I felt like the complete lack of punctuation—while a meaningful, ironic gesture to the title—confused the meaning sometimes rather than adding to it. When I understood what Harrison was trying to say, I was blown away, but it was difficult to access the content through the form.

[Lorena · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I keep throwing words at the problem because words”
“God speaks”
“Summa mathematica”
“Imagine”
“Take eat”
“To say”
“Wilt thou play with him as with a bird”
“When trees are dead they are”
“Carnation lily lily rose”
“Eve”
“Touch me now”
“Was it ice”
“Snowfields”
“Let the blue earth spin”
*“Things the realtor will not tell the new owner”
“Bezoar”

[Stephen Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A blurb on the back cover declares that "these are incantatory and hypnotic poems," which is the perfect description. These beg to be read out loud, and then read sotto voce a couple more times.
To wit:

[That]
Leslie Harrison

That this is the morning in which nothing much
that the sky is still there and the water dresses
accordingly that only at night does the water rest
vanish from sight that the stars are too small too far
to register there that all our names too are writ
invisibly on water that abiding requires more hope
than I can possibly acquire that hope is not a thing
with feathers that hope is a thing with a fist a thin
crust sketched over oceans that hope is what despair
uses for bait come in hope says the water’s fine
that hope is the blood with which you write letters
that start dear sea dear ocean stop asking so fucking
much that hope is a telegram delivered by men
in pairs men in uniform a telegram that says missing
stop that says once again presumed lost stop

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a beautiful book.
I didn't mind the punctuation, if anything I think it enhances the experience.

Reading some parts gave me goosebumps and I loved every bit of it.
Definitely recommend♡

[Kapiolani · Rating 2 out of 5]

not for me

I can see how perhaps this style of poetry resonates with some but it implores a lot of older poetry techniques from a more classical time. This book wasn’t for me at all.

[Charlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, do I love poetry that cascades trippingly from line to line.

[Jesica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just wanted into this book, so maybe I will try again later.

[Brian Wasserman · Rating 2 out of 5]

delectable as a mouthful of nails is delectable

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. So so beautiful. So true.