Selected Poems

by C.K. Williams

For his Selected Poems , C. K. Williams has chosen from three decades of his work to represent every aspect of his marvelous career.

Genres: Poetry

312 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

C.K. Williams was born and grew up in and around Newark, New Jersey. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he majored in philosophy and English. He has published many books of poetry, including Repair, which was awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize, The Singing which won the National Book Award for 2003, and Flesh and Blood, the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Prize in 1987. He has also been awarded the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the PEN Voelker Career Achievement Award in Poetry for 1998; a Guggeheim Fellowship, two NEA grants, the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin, a Lila Wallace Fellowship, the Los Angeles Book Prize, and an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He published a memoir, Misgivings, in 2000, which was awarded the PEN Albrand Memoir Award, and translations of Sophocles’ Women of Trachis, Euripides’ Bacchae, and poems of Francis Ponge, Adam Zagajewski, as well as versions of the Japanese Haiku poet Issa.

His book of essays, Poetry and Consciousness, appeared in 1998. and his most recent, In Time, in 2012. He published a book about Walt Whitman, On Whitman, in 2010, and in 2012 a book of poems, Writers Writing Dying. A book of prose poems, All At Once, will be published in 2014.

He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was a chancellor of the American Academy of Poets.

Reviews

[Max Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Is probably closer to 4.5/5, but worth rounding up)

CK Williams is a wizard-- I don't know if I would recommend him (or this volume) to a person who isn't interested in poetics; popular poets are popular for a reason, and Williams never got a ton of widespread fame. However, he won lots of poetry awards, and for good reason. His trademark style with long, almost prose-like lines, is a beautiful structure for his work. This volume stitches together poetry from throughout much of his career, showing his artistic evolution.

Early on he was a bit more specific and political, which was fun- some of his work on the Vietnam War was great and stirring. But his best work is definitely later on, when he gets existential and personal. There's a sense of moral urgency, Williams demands that we think about our surroundings in ways that draw out a sense of curiosity and wonder. His environmental description made me smile so many times, and I've bookmarked about 7 poems (and over 15 specific quotes) to come back to in about a week just to redigest them.

Not every poem hits deep, but such is the nature of a poetry collection. My only real issue is his sometimes crude depiction of sexuality and female characters. It never feels outright toxic to me, especially in a genre where so many male writers are outright pigs to women. Nevertheless, my asexual self cringed several times and often would quickly skim through the more sexual writings..

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poems in this volume were hit-and-miss for me. Some, a lot of the environmental poems or deeply personal ones, were excellent. Others were not as interesting. I know Williams is a big fish in the poetry pool, and I did like some of his work, but I would only recommend to those highly interested in poetics.

[Gary McDowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very mean woman ruined this beautiful poet for me. I still love most of the work though.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sections from "A Dream of Mind" and "New Poems" were worth the read. The rest was unfortunately boring.

[Slash Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favorite collections of poetry.... Like he took a sheet of paper and licked it and stuck it to his skin and made a book from those pages.