The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write: Poems

by Gregory Orr

A "master of the lyric poem" ( Paris Review ) at the top of his form writes indelibly of grief and love. In this moving, playful, and deeply philosophical volume, Gregory Orr seeks innovative ways for the imagination to respond to and create meaning out of painful experiences, while at the same time rejoicing in love and language. A passionate exploration of the forces that shape us, The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write explores themes of survival and the powerlessness of the self in a chaotic and unfair world, finding hope in the emotions and vitality of poetry. With characteristic meditative lyricism, the poet reflects on grief and the power of language in extended odes (“Ode to Nothing,” “Ode to Words”) and slips effortlessly from personal trauma (“Song of What Happens”) to public catastrophe (“Charlottesville Elegy”). The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write confirms Orr’s place among the preeminent lyric poets of his generation, engaging the deepest existential issues with wisdom and humor and transforming them into celebratory song.

Genres: Poetry, Adult

127 pages, Hardcover

First published June 18, 2019

About the author

Gregory Orr was born in Albany, New York in 1947, and grew up in the rural Hudson Valley. He received a BA degree from Antioch College in 1969 and an MFA from Columbia University in 1972.

He is the author of more than ten collections of poetry, including River Inside the River: Poems (W. W. Norton, 2013); How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (2005); The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems (2002); Orpheus and Eurydice (2001); City of Salt (1995), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Poetry Prize; Gathering the Bones Together (1975) and Burning the Empty Nests (1973).

He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002), which was chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books the year, and three books of essays, including Poetry As Survival (2002) and Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry (1985).
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true master at the height of power - inspired. Poetry can be daunting; I have many friends tell me that they avoid reading poetry because they are not 'sure if I am getting what the poet is trying to say.' Gregory Orr is one of the poets I suggest that can be read on several levels; literally and/or figuratively, yet still extremely accessible.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Orr is not afraid to dwell in sincerity and sentiment, to break his lines so that a single word isolated from its neighbors sits alone and ponderous, to get down in the muck with the big abstractions other poets shun. And this can be great. I didn't mind nodding along as Orr enthused about how relaxing on the grass is nice, but poems that end with epiphanies like "it's a dark and violent world" (the actual last words of one poem) did occasionally seem to verge on the banal and left me wanting a bit more. The two overtly topical poems ("I Don't Really Care, Do You?" and "Charlottesville Elegy"), in particular, left me craving more sharpness. The first-person speaker of this book says Emily Dickinson spoke to him in dreams and also cites Sappho as an influence, laxly paraphrasing the latter poet at length in "Lyric Revises the World" ("All around you, the guys / Jabbered on and on / About how awesome / Marching armies are..."), with the unintended result that sometimes I itched to stop reading this book and instead just reread Dickinson and Sappho with their matchless concision, taut grace, and originality of thought. Still, Orr does at times hit upon a line that is nicely pithy, e.g., when he says art's purpose is to turn "shadow into shade" or when he indicts sleazy politicians' excuse-making with these lines:

None have done wrong
Who still have a tongue.

Even Cain can explain.

A couple of the poems seem to continue beyond the point where they could just as well have stopped, but "To Hart Crane" effectively leans on silence and omission to work its magic, deliberately not mentioning what we all know about the circumstances of Crane's death to make a point about the death-defying ecstasy of Crane's poetry. And sure, there are some corny moments (in a poem about vowels: "And 'u'--who / Could ever forget you? // 'I' could never. / 'Y' would I even try?"), but these are balanced out by moments that are plain lovely, e.g., in "For My Mother," one of three poems in the book that ponders the poetic potential of mondegreens:

My favorite was
"Down in the Valley"--
Melancholy tune
Whose refrain went:
"Angels in heaven
Know I love you"...

and me
Still a child...
mishearing
That line...

As if it meant
"Angels in heaven?
No, I love you."
Such a choice
Impressed me,
And even then made sense.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gregory Orr remains a lyric poet of measured syntax and the deepest rooted imagery (as the poet Stanley Kunitz once wrote about Orr). There is clarity and precision in the use of words in his poems. Words are not wasted. Care is taken. They tell.

I think this is Orr’s strongest work since The Red House and City of Salt. I found the title of this book sadly evocative, but the poem itself with that title is pretty good, along with several poems in tribute to other poets.

By some accounts, Orr does 200 drafts of a single poem. Rather than lazy free verse that too many poets today get away with, Orr is rigorous in writing mostly stellar and lyrical poems. A demanding poet is the one to spend time with.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vindicating the Seventies period style, Orr's dimeter pursues idiomatic speed and gem-like slowness. It's a trope for the transcendent obsolescence of the damned, whose inspirational verse comes from an "Ode to Nothing": "Nothing stands between | The abyss and you. | Nothing keeps you | From falling off | The edge. |Nothing | Is that important."

[Peycho Kanev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certain poems offer me . . .

Certain poems offer me escape—
They’re floating islands
Anchored only
By a cloud-rope of words
I can climb.
Some
Are the opposite:
Insisting on
Embodiment—
As if they were tattooed
On the beloved’s thigh.
Still others are short
And sharp—arrows
Aimed at the heart,
As if the purpose
Of beauty
Was to hurt me more alive.

[Veronica Swan]

“If I’m to grow now,
It will be through grieving.
It will be through this
Deepening I didn’t choose.”

[Celinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection -- my favorite of his is still Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved, but this was solid and filled with some real gems!

[Shayla]

How often I've wished
It arrived by just
Sashaying in
Through my senses.

But for me, love
Couldn't enter
Until I was broken,
All the way to the center.

Right here, the blow fell--
A sledgehammer
Against a wall.
And so,
A ragged door was made,
And the beloved came to dwell.

This was a great collection, I read the whole thing in a day. The last 1/3 is not as good as the very powerful first part, but still I really enjoyed experiencing all of it. The poem above is my favorite. Another of my favorites is below--

Aftermath Sonnet

Letting my tongue sleep,
And my heart go numb.

Sensing that speech
Too soon,
After such a wound,
Would only be
A different bleeding.

Even needing to leave
The page blank.
Long season
Of silence--
Trusting that under

Its bandage of snow,
The field of me is healing.

"Sensing that speech too soon, after such a wound, would only be a different bleeding" is a crazy sequence of words. Just beautiful. Would love to read more of his work.

[Sam Ging · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book I got for my birthday finished. I love this man's poetry.

[Cali · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I closed my eyes I saw him
Lying at my feet.
I knew
God and I were through,
And after that, what is there?

This is a phenomenal collection. I love Orr's use of classical (Sappho and Anactoria!!) and modern poetry references. He presents himself not as an individual, but rather a mere part of a much larger narrative, in which lyric poetry does what philosophy cannot: present the irrational as divine. To be truthful I was floored by the majority of these, but my favourites were Dark Song, The Undertoad, Aftermath Inventory, The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write, and Inscription. Honourable mention to Charlottsville Elegy, as its served as a nice reminder that not all modern poets are completely out of touch with reality. Out of the Odes to Lyric Poets, I was struck most by #15, inspired by Du Fu. Will definitely be reading more Gregory Orr!

[Emelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certain poems offer me escape -
They're floating islands
Anchored only
By a cloud-rope of words
I can climb.

Some
Are the opposite:
Insisting on
Embodiment -
As if they were tattooed
On a beloved's thigh.

Still others are short
And sharp - Arrows
Aimed at the heart,
As if the purpose
Of beauty
Was to hurt me more alive.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

holy childhood trauma 😳😳

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Themes of hunting: deer or family dying. Survivor’s guilt. What could have been. Love lost (many ways). Messages in titles or lines in different contexts.

[Maya Kahal · Rating 1 out of 5]

If only i could give this book a zero :)
Boring asf

[Madison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elated that I came upon Gregory Orr, who I will undoubtedly be reading much more of in the near future. His writing style is simultaneously lyrical and candid. Pleasantly surprised by this read - not because I expected it to be bad, but rather because I've had a dull streak reading poets I haven't jived with lately.

I have a feeling that there is a class at UVA that reads this book, and boy! do I wish I was in it. I want to dissect these in some poetry discussion course so badly. Like "An Ode to Nothing," "Still Life,"? Come on. Just from the short amount of time I've already spent rolling them around in my head, it's thrilling to think about how much more an academic discussion would bring to the table. Yes, I love school.

Reading about Charlottesville/authors from Charlottesville feels a bit like going home. It's a gift to have gotten to call it home for a season, and an extra gift to have had professors that worked to integrate us as students into the fiber of the community through readings, connections, events, assignments, videos, both assigned and unassigned. I'll also say that I had no idea when I picked this book up that Orr founded UVA's MFA program, so of course my affection for the book grew when I read that online.

Particularly interesting to me:

- "An Ode to Nothing" - I had to read this a few times to make anything of it, and even though I still don't fully understand what he means by it, some of the lines are just so compelling. EX:
"When scientists tell us / Atoms are mostly / Made of nothing, / They are speaking / As priests charged / With a deep mystery: / How nothing holds / The universe together; / How nothing / Is the secret force / At the heart of it all."

- "Reading Dickinson" - "Each poem is a whorled / Shell / I hold to my ear." - Brilliant.

- "An Ode to Some Lyric Poets" - Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Particular lines I loved:
(on Wilfred Owen) "He's dug / Enough trenches / To fill the entire / Twentieth century, / Yet no line is deep enough / To save a single one of us."
(on Emily Dickinson) "'We are bound by words / And wonder to the world.'"
(on Rimbaud) "What courage / It took-his poems / Spitting off sparks / As they raced through the dark."
(from Keats) "I believe in nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination."
(on Hölderlin) "Better to swim / Through harm / Than ride / So high above it / That we look / Down on suffering. / You must descend, / Love said, / You must embrace / What seeks to break you."
(on Virgil) "'The tears of things'- / Virgil's phrase; / As if every object / Is filled / With grief / And wants to weep."

- "How often I've wished..." - This quote, that's all: "How often I've wished / It arrived by just / Sashaying in / Through my senses. / But for me, love / Couldn't enter / Until I was broken / All the way to the center."

- "It's narrow..." - Again, this quote, and that's all: "What fool said joy / Is less risky than grief?"

- "Dark Proverbs for Dark Times" - "Remember: every fist / Began as an open hand." & "Those who praise rage / Should be made / To visit more graves."

- "Charlottesville Elegy" - Wow.

- "Still Life" - Re-read this one quite a few times. I think I've learned that my favorite kind of poem is the one that takes the existential meaning of life theme and rolls it around in its palm like a stone, noting each glint of the light against its edges, recognizing that its appearance/beauty is deeply subjective to how you look at it, and leaving you with more questions than answers (a common thread in every book I enjoy lately...here's to becoming more and more curious).
Favorite lines: "Praising what you've rescued from time's blade" & "Life prefers the running water to the still..."

- "The last love poem I will ever write..." - Splendid. Magical. Unexpected.

- "Young, I took it all so..." - Splendid. Magical. Unexpected.

- "Secret Constellation" - Splendid. Magical. Unexpected.

Some of his rhyming annoyed me, but that's probably because I don't really like rhyming poetry in general. Anyone else feel averse because it feels a little elementary? Like almost a cop-out? I know that's 100% certainly definitely unfair, but it's how it feels sometimes, regardless.

Will definitely be reading more Gregory Orr.

[stephanie cassidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

consider the first breath ever
breathed and it being
sent out into the world
of other things breathing
suddenly taking in
some of what was pushed
out. and if in continuing
we make an agreement
that some of what goes
is also some of what stays

and if that is in the essence
of smoke of particular birch
or maple or gun smoke say
all those years later we
breath it in and trigger
our first breath of it how
if for Gregory Orr that gun
smoke is the shape and smell
of his little brother eight
years of age face turned
into the shell of his sweat-

shirt hood forever and the shot
that killed him lost in some
distant leafless tree. Poor
Gregory. Poor Peter. Please

if you ever read this book walk
out into the trees and see
these boys still able to make
shadows on the long grasses
and run as boys run the both
of them parallel to the trauma
that has paused when the gun
isn't (hold on) fired.

[Yordanos · Rating 2 out of 5]

These poems relish in the simple pleasures, observations, quandaries, and intersections that have a nuanced depth and transcend the 'simple' category. Orr presents a sense of self-awareness that is reflexive, humble, and unconcerned with others' judgments or views -- the freedom this allows is clear in how the poems of this collection are grounded in what the poet finds sacred and worth his attention, as well as his poetic intimacy. For this reason, I found the collection to be endearing and reminiscent of W.S. Merwin's poetry.

Beyond the aforementioned and the sentimentality the collection evokes, it was an ok read; certainly, no poem/s that blew me away or that I would want to revisit.

[C. Brunson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book very much. In several poems Gregory Orr uses unexpected turns of phrases that were brilliant and delightful. He also included at least three villanelles. I LOVE villanelles. Out of 113 or so pages of actual poetry there were only a handful that made me think: meh.
I will be revisiting this collection in the none-too-distant future.

[Cate Tedford · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasure to read:)

“And my luck / Seems double luck / Because it’s so gratuitous, / Because I never did a thing / To earn it, and yet / It’s come to me, as has / This morning / With its early light slanting / Through the maple trees / Alive with birdcalls / And me looking out / On the innocent day / With the eyes I was given for free.”

[Estela-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes when I’m reading poetry, I feel like I’m reading too fast, that I’m not listening. Then I watch myself stop, reread a line, reread a passage over and over again, and I know I am—I’m paying attention, hopelessly caught in the words.

This was the beautiful experience I felt reading this brutally heart-making collection.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved when the beloved made appearances. It's really wonderful reading a poet's works over the years. This collection didn't feel as cohesive as others I have read from this poet, and some of the rhymes just rubbed me the wrong way.

[MaryBeth Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is brilliant. At turns lyrical, witty, whimsical yet deceptively complex, this slim book of poems manages to tap on a wide gamut of topics including the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, raising daughters, Melania Trump, aging, marriage, and reading Emily Dickinson.

[Michael Steele]

The slight number of words on the page made me skeptical, but Orr’s words and wisdom punch above their weight class of half-empty pages. I really liked this. I don’t think I’ll be reading tons of poetry from here, but I’ll definitely keep reading Orr.

[Dilan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“How nothing holds
The universe together;
How nothing
Is the secret force
At the heart of it all.”

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection, accessible (my most important standard), yet somewhat light weight.

[Nina]

I love Gregory Orr's poems--these aren't my go to's but I still appreciate his work always

[Akoaris · Rating 4 out of 5]

By now, the wine’s not
Working anymore
And I’m silently reflecting
On how I’ve lived through
The end of one century
Into the next, and still
It’s a dark and violent world.

[Mary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few poems and lots of lines that really resonated. I need to read more Orr.

[V.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is one of my new favorite collections. i felt clearly so much of what he was writing as himself and was able to feel it as myself as well. can't recommend this work enough !!!

[ana beatriz · Rating 4 out of 5]

You must descend,
Love said,
You must embrace
What seeks to break you.