Snow Approaching on the Hudson: Poems

by August Kleinzahler

August Kleinzahler has earned admiration for his musical, precise, wise, and sometimes madcap poems that are grounded in the wide array of places, people, and most especially the voices, he has encountered in his real and imaginative worlds. Snow Approaching on the Hudson is a collection that moves seamlessly through the often hypnogogic, porous realms of dreams, the past and present, inner and outer landscapes. His haunting, shifting atmospheres are peopled by characters, intimately portrayed, that are at once historical and invented.



The poet's signature rhythmic propulsion serves as the engine for his newest collection, and his always masterful free verse conveys a life thoroughly lived and brilliantly perceived.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Hardcover

Published November 10, 2020

About the author

August Kleinzahler was born in Jersey City in 1949. He is the author of eleven books of poems and a memoir, "Cutty, One Rock." His collection "The Strange Hours Travelers Keep" was awarded the 2004 Griffin Poetry Prize, and "Sleeping It Off in Rapid City" won the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award. That same year he received a Lannan Literary Award. His new collection, "The Hotel Oneira," will be published by FSG October 1st, 2013. He lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

[Paul Secor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Windshield wipers slapping back and forth, Murph's Celebrity
Sedan
hugged the curve as it sped onto the Edison Bridge, Super 88
4 barrel
High Compression 394 Rocket V8, Roto Hydro-Matic
transmission, power steering,
Pedal-Ease power brakes, the rolling black cylinder
speedometer
flashing green, yellow, and red, holding steady at 65 mph,
midnight blue frame
encasing me in terror, where I remain still, sleeping or awake
when I conjure that ride across the old deck plate and girder
bridge
with its big hump in the middle, all 29 spans, the muddy
Raritan 135 feet below.
Murph's foot to the floor as he wove through the pack,
growling
imprecations, outraged by the pace of the rest of the world,
frantic
to get nowhere in particular except in the early a.m. on the
G.W. Bridge
dropping me off at the IRT on 168th then heading downtown to
his taxi place.

from "Murph & Me"

Those French boys in the engine room aren't giving him much,
but he doesn't need much, does Carlos Wesley Byas of
Muskogee, Oklahoma,
elbows on the bar of the Beaulieu, circa '47 - I was born
under the sign of music,
he tells whoever's listening. That feathery tone of his by way of
Hawk
but something else entirely, running through this set of ballads:
"Laura,"
"Where or When," "Flamingo," unmistakable, no one played
ballads like him.

from "A History of Western Music: Chapter 42 (Caspian Lake, Vermont)

Both of these poems take a ride to other places. These are just excerpts.
If what you've read above speaks to you, buy the book. If it doesn't, find another book of poetry that does speak to you and buy it. There's plenty of poetry out there, past and present.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short, quirky prose poems by Kleinzahler, a native New Jerseyan, whose language is creative. Some of the poems are vivid and creative, a few of the poems seem a little dashed off. Kleinzahler also has a way with poem titles, like "Seminal Vestibule," included in this collection. The poems have a certain free form jazz style. (Overall score 3.4-3.5/5.0 stars.)

[Leeza]

didn’t really resonate with this until about a third from the end, when either something clicked or i just enjoyed those poems more.

one to revisit? i appreciate how esoteric and specific his vocabulary is

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

a few outstanding poems in this collection.

Traveler's Tales: Chapter 53
Snow Approaching on the Hudson
Father
Heat
Traveler's Tales: Chapter 90
Driving by Bluff Road Just After Dusk in Late Autumn