In the Room of Never Grieve: New and Selected Poems, 1985-2003

by Anne Waldman

"Waldman is at the apex of her career, and the legitimate heir to Allen Ginsberg’s crown as America’s underground ‘poet-ambassador’ laureate."—Colorado Springs Independent

In the Room of Never Grievecharts Anne Waldman’s dynamic career and reveals a mature, wise, and spiritual poet with enormous energy and vast literary powers. A CD featuring Waldman’s performance of her signature work accompanies this exhilarating and vital addition to American poetry. While reading these poems is essential, hearing the poet’s voice lift them off the page is transcendent.

Anne Waldman is a poet, performer, cultural activist, professor, and author of over forty books. In an ongoing -mission to "make the world safe for poetry," she teaches seminars and -performs her work around the globe.

Genres: Poetry

491 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Anne Waldman was part of the late Sixties poetry scene in the East Village. She ran the St. Mark's Church Poetry Project, and gave exuberant, highly physical readings of her own work.

She became a Buddhist, worshipping with the Tibetan Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who would also become Allen Ginsberg's guru. She and Ginsberg worked together to create a poetry school, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, at Trungpa's Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Anne Waldman is one of the most interesting, vibrant and unpredictable members of the post-Beat poetry community. Her confluence of Buddhist concerns and thought-paths with sources of physicality and anger is particularly impressive (did you get all that?).

She was featured in Bob Dylan's experimental film 'Renaldo and Clara.'

Reviews

[Tyler]

The Room of Never Grieve offers very modern poetry all taking different shapes and tones. The poems all bend the genres of poetry showing a plethora of ways it can be written. There is an album in the back of the book that has music composed by her son for his favorite poems to go to, poems take shape, her poems are to be read, it is a book that brings back the spoken aspect of poetry without altering the genre/making it a spoken word, these poems all work in a multitude of ways to challenge what is considered poetry, and they easily changed my thinking on the matter.

[Dom Zuccone · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're unfamilar with Anne Waldman, this is a daunting, but accessibe tome, enhanced by a CD of her reading which provides a pleasing acess to her style and voice.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

innovative, political