Chosen by the Lion: Poems

by Linda Gregg

Chosen by the Lion is Linda Gregg's fourth collection, and her most eloquent, bespeaking a deeply personal reconciliation with the loss of love. Gregg is able to take common experience, to see it clearly, in all its mundane and ordinary complexity. But in her poetry, that experience is also explored in its affinity to the gods, to the ways of nature. The result is an experience that is firmly grounded in the ordinary, yet transformed spiritually. Linda Gregg's other books of poetry Things and Flesh , The Sacraments of Desire , Alma , and Too Bright to See .

Genres: Poetry

62 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Linda Gregg is the author of several collectios of poetry: In the Middle Distance, Things and Flesh, Chosen by the Lion, The Sacraments of Desire, Alma,Too Bright to See and All of It Singing. Her honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Literary Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She won 2006 PEN/Voelcker Award winner for Poetry and has won a Whiting Award.

Librarian's note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes I think Gregg is a dramatic romantic...and then she'll write, "If you do this to me, if you/do this to me, if you take your love away, if you take,/if you go away, you will make my heart blind in me" and then I'll think...no, she's just dramatic.

[Meg Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I gave this book four stars because I can't pretend to understand everything she says. A lot of it hit me hard, though, and I found myself snapping pictures with my phone hoping to sound like Linda one day. I am grateful for the friend who let me borrow her favorite book of poetry. We women need to stick together.

[june · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Seashelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually really love the poems, but there's enough racism in here to put me off giving this collection a higher star.

[Susan Schefflein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful, inspiring group of poems. Re-read in August this year. Read "Fishing in the Keep of Silence" 15 years ago at a sunrise service.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous in ways only Gregg can make poems. Not much to say except that I love her work. There's a deep mythology here that's worth exploring.

[stephanie cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

what's common is that it just isn't
and we don't want it to be

and we, bereft of our losses
confirm them word after word

rain after rain
of memory that won't be buried