Almost Human

by Thomas Centolella

Winner of the Dorset Prize, selected by Edward Hirsch As in a profound love affair, Thomas Centolella's new poems register attraction, delight, expectations fulfilled and foiled, and moments of great feeling cherished and/or lamented. Employing the vividness of narrative without yielding to its linear strictures and overly familiar tonalities, many of the first-person protagonists in Almost Human are mysterious figures at once engaging and idiosyncratic, even outright eccentric. Often betwixt and between, neither here nor there, they are uncertain of actually getting anywhere. Almost Human documents the restive life-force incarnated in an endangered species -- our own -- and charts the movement of the self between spirit and human, recalling the idea, attributed to Teilhard de Chardin, that we aren't human beings having a spiritual experience but spiritual beings having a human experience.

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

Published June 1, 2017

About the author

Thomas Centolella is the author of four books of poetry: "Terra Firma," selected by Denise Levertov for the National Poetry Series and winner of the American Book Award; "Lights & Mysteries," winner of the California Book Award from the Commonwealth Club; "Views from along the Middle Way"; and "Almost Human," winner of the Dorset Prize from Tupelo Press, selected by Edward Hirsch. He has received a Lannan Literary Award and is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. He has taught creative writing in the Bay Area for many years.

Reviews

[Cathryn Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Centolella has again created a spiritual, transcendental journey in his latest collection. I go back and reread poems to find that I’ve gleaned more meanings and more possibilities from the work. So tight is the writing and syntax, yet so rich. Centolella gives us a taut counterpoint between gods and mortals, the subtle drama and tension of the quotidian elevated to universal mysteries. And there is humor. I highly recommend this book. The round-trip fare from terra firma to the outer reaches of the galaxy and back is more than worth it.

[Karima · Rating 5 out of 5]

"....spiritual beings having a human experience."
That's Us. That's the inner and outer-scape from which Centolella writes.
Like Jesus, we are "still singing among the stench."
Actually doing much more than singing and surrounded by much more than bad smells.
One needs to spend a long time with these poems. They are populated with friends, enemies, former, future and regretted selves, and unlike the character in "Southernly Wind and Fine Weather," there is no expiration date.

[Anthony Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to say about these, except I like them, in particular the style which is laconic (though the poems are not short), measured, patient.

That's an odd set of adjectives. But I will probably add to this review from time to time as I become more familiar with the poems. They are small meditations, and soothe and, like a good bath or a long walk, offer time for reflection and unexpected lumination.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems about the world and life. They made me think about how the challenges of life add up over time. Made me think about how the world can break us, and we are saved by our common humanity. Hope is there, but it's found in the every day. He mentions the Via Negativa in a poem, and there is more of that in these poems. Perhaps that is part of aging. There are poems dedicated to those who have starting and ending dates.

From the poem "Spirit":
"I worked for a living
but never so hard as when I slipped
from one persona into the next
simply to remain among the living.
Whoever claimed in a loud voice to know me
knew only as much as the fates
would permit."