Sparrow: New and Selected Poems

by Reginald Gibbons

Book by Gibbons, Reginald

Genres: Poetry

146 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1997

About the author

Reginald Gibbons is an American poet, fiction writer, translator, and literary critic. He is the Frances Hooper Professor of Arts and Humanities, Emeritus, at Northwestern University. Gibbons has published numerous books, including 11 volumes of poems, translations of poetry from ancient Greek, Spanish, and co-translations from Russian. He has published short stories, essays, reviews and art in journals and magazines, has held Guggenheim Foundation and NEA fellowships in poetry and a research fellowship from the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C. For his novel, Sweetbitter, he won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; for his book of poems, Maybe It Was So, he won the Carl Sandburg Prize. He has won the Folger Shakespeare Library's O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize, and other honors, among them the inclusion of his work in Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies. His book Creatures of a Day was a Finalist for the 2008 National Book Award for poetry. His other poetry books include Sparrow: New and Selected Poems (Balcones Prize), Last Lake and Renditions, his eleventh book of poems. Two books of poems are forthcoming: Three Poems in 2024 and Young Woman With a Cane in 2025. He has also published two collections of very short fiction, Five Pears or Peaches and An Orchard in the Street.

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked some poems in this book and I certainly can't disparage Gibbons' ability as a poet, but I can't say I was impressed enough throughout the entire work to recommend this book. Though it doesn't have a "selected" title, it's a retrospective providing poems from each of his earlier works. I would read more of his work if I came across it, primarily because he is a poet who with a conscience who is not afraid to tackle uncomfortable ethical/political subjects.

From "Image of a Young Man, c. 1994":

There may once have been a modest
holiness in the small clearings in the woods
before they were land-minded
where the aid packages fell tangled in their parachutes
and were turned to bait for booby traps and ambush
Did modest holiness serve at least
sometimes to hold back our predatory hands?

Yet most of his poetry has to do with everyday life, which he renders well. Occasionally he takes on larger themes but I found those the least satisfying.