Visible Signs: New and Selected Poems

by Lawrence Raab

A poem by Lawrence Raab is a carefully chosen and precisely rendered moment—a poised and elegant meditation on the nature of memory. This new collection includes a selection from each of Raab's five previous books of poetry, as well as twenty-one new poems. Readers will delight in their wide-ranging subjects, from "Miles Davis on Art" to "Saint Augustine's Dog," from the inventions of Rube Goldberg to the recklessness of dreams.

Genres: Poetry

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2003

Reviews

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I graduated
from Canada's top poetry school
with really good grades

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is truly a bummer for me to give this collection 3 stars.
I've considered Lawrence Raab to be my favorite contemporary poet since I first read Attack of the Crab Monsters in my high school creative writing textbook. I have most of his books published before this one, one of them signed to me at a reading he did in Pittsburgh in the 90s. I still love the Crab Monsters, and Voices Answering Back: The Vampires, and The Witch's Story.
But the majority of this collection left me cold. There are a lot of poems here about emotional subjects, but they feel cerebral more than heartfelt. Clever and academic. This is very probably a change in what I want out of poetry more than any decline in the quality of Raab's work.
I also need to complain just a bit about the layout---the majority of these poems end up being one page PLUS ONE STANZA and this is maddening to me.
Certainly they could have used a smaller typeface or made the pages a couple inches larger? I can't be the only person who was put off by this.

[Daniel Klawitter · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the kitchen table
plums and an apple.
The chipped white plate.
The studied poverty
of small observations.

-Lawrence Raab, from the poem "Night Song"

Like Stephen Dunn, the poet with whom Raab has collaborated with on a chapbook, "small observations" abound in this collection. Both poets have mastered a sort of middle-class vantage point with which they craft poems often focused on domesticity, reverie, and the familiar stuff of life made gently radiant. The tone of voice is conversational, self-aware and urbane. The majority of Raab's poems in this collection seem to look backwards more often than not...mining the memory for soft nuggets of wisdom. And he knows what he's doing. As he writes in one poem:

I know nostalgia
wants to make the present
feel bereft: a way of pretending,
neither the truth, nor invention.

[LYS. · Rating 3 out of 5]

“All things vanish. You know that. / All the things you love / vanish.” —“Vanishing,” page 188

actually 3.74 stars!

this is very much a close 4 for me, but it edged more out of my realm of poetry interest most of the time. raab’s got such a firm grasp of bare, emotional truths and always leaves the last line(s) turning the whole poem around!

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writer's Almanac introduced me to the poetry of Lawrence Raab. I enjoyed his poem "Why It Often Rains in the Movies" so much I decided I wanted to own one of his books. I am adding him to my list of favorite poets along with Billy Collins, Linda Pastan, George Bilgere...

[Robin Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have discovered a poet new to me--am reading everything he has published. I love the way he deals with ordinary events and transforms them into profound considerations

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I probably mixed poems from History of Forgetting. Anyway, I liked A Night's Museum and Request from one or the other.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorites are his poems about God. The way he mixes the mundane and the mystical really speak to me. Kind of like a male Mary Oliver, with less nature and more philosophy.

[Courtney Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily a new favorite poet.