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Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved
“The heart of Orr’s poetry, now as ever, is the enigmatic image . . . mystical, carnal, reflective, wry.”— San Francisco Review This book-length sequence of ecstatic, visionary lyrics recalls Rumi in its search for the beloved and its passionate belief in the healing qualities of art and beauty. Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved is an incantatory celebration of the “Book,” an imaginary and self-gathering anthology of all the lyrics—both poems and songs—ever written. Each poem highlights a distinct aspect of the human condition, and together the poems explore love, loss, restoration, the beauty of the world, the beauty of the beloved, and the mystery of poetry. The purpose and power of the Book is to help us live by reconnecting us to the world and to our emotional lives. I put the beloved
In a wooden coffin.
The fire ate his body;
The flames devoured her.
I put the beloved
In a poem or song.
Tucked it between
Two pages of the Book.
How bright the flames.
All of me burning,
All of me on fire
And still whole. There is nothing quite like this book—an “active anthology” in the best sense—where individuals find the poems and songs that will sustain them. Or the poems find them. Gregory Orr is the author of eight books of poetry, four volumes of criticism, and a memoir. He has received numerous awards for his work, most recently the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Orr has taught at the University of Virginia since 1975 and was, for many years, the poetry editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review . He lives with his family in Charlottesville, Virginia.
In a wooden coffin.
The fire ate his body;
The flames devoured her.
I put the beloved
In a poem or song.
Tucked it between
Two pages of the Book.
How bright the flames.
All of me burning,
All of me on fire
And still whole. There is nothing quite like this book—an “active anthology” in the best sense—where individuals find the poems and songs that will sustain them. Or the poems find them. Gregory Orr is the author of eight books of poetry, four volumes of criticism, and a memoir. He has received numerous awards for his work, most recently the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Orr has taught at the University of Virginia since 1975 and was, for many years, the poetry editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review . He lives with his family in Charlottesville, Virginia.
200 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2005
41 people are currently reading
745 people want to read
About the author
Gregory Orr
37 books105 followersGregory Orr was born in Albany, New York in 1947, and grew up in the rural Hudson Valley. He received a BA degree from Antioch College in 1969 and an MFA from Columbia University in 1972.
He is the author of more than ten collections of poetry, including River Inside the River: Poems (W. W. Norton, 2013); How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (2005); The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems (2002); Orpheus and Eurydice (2001); City of Salt (1995), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Poetry Prize; Gathering the Bones Together (1975) and Burning the Empty Nests (1973).
He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002), which was chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books the year, and three books of essays, including Poetry As Survival (2002) and Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry (1985).
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...
He is the author of more than ten collections of poetry, including River Inside the River: Poems (W. W. Norton, 2013); How Beautiful the Beloved (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved (2005); The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems (2002); Orpheus and Eurydice (2001); City of Salt (1995), which was a finalist for the L.A. Times Poetry Prize; Gathering the Bones Together (1975) and Burning the Empty Nests (1973).
He is also the author of a memoir, The Blessing (Council Oak Books, 2002), which was chosen by Publisher's Weekly as one of the fifty best non-fiction books the year, and three books of essays, including Poetry As Survival (2002) and Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry (1985).
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
October 17, 2019
Some books require something beyond a five star rating and this is one of them. I cried so many times reading this book and so much grief was escorted to the surface, but this is the sort of book we should all read so we can better understand the anatomy of loss. I will return to this again and again. I know that Orr's will be a voice that I will summon up in times of great darkness. These are poems to spend time with and I intend to return to them.
March 9, 2023
All the different books you read—
You were searching
For the one Book.
All the poems you read
And what you really sought
Was the one poem.
And when you found it
Weren’t you lifted up?
Didn’t you become lighter?
Transparent even, so that
someone looking at you
Could see the world,
Could see the world inside you?
You were searching
For the one Book.
All the poems you read
And what you really sought
Was the one poem.
And when you found it
Weren’t you lifted up?
Didn’t you become lighter?
Transparent even, so that
someone looking at you
Could see the world,
Could see the world inside you?
February 28, 2015
I loved, love this book, just as he did the other Beloved book. I've dog eared about as many pages in this book as I haven't. It is a book that you will hate if you only like narrative poetry, or that works as one long meditation on a subJect, because that is what this book is. Every poem speaks to the Book that is both life, the world, creation, and the combination of every story and poem ever written, or to the Beloved, which can mean different things to different people: God, a loved one, something or someone you adore, life. For me, every poem reads as a prayer, and as a prayer written for readers. Like:
Nothing more beautiful than the body
Of the beloved that is the world.
Nothing more beautiful than the voice
Of the beloved, calling our name.
In so many poems we hear it.
In so many poems, we answer.
Or this:
When you are sad
The Book grows larger
As if to comfort you.
When you despair
It can narrow
To a single poem.
And when joy
Arrives - hard
To read at all.
Blinking at
Page-dazzle;
The words
Breaking apart
Into letters,
Dancing there,
Unable to calm down.
Or this:
How lucky we are
That you can't sell
A poem, that it has
No value. Might
As well
Give it away.
The poem you love,
That saved your life,
Wasn't it given to you?
If these kinds of poems speak to you, then you will love this book, and if not, well then read something else because the world is full of great books and poetry.
Nothing more beautiful than the body
Of the beloved that is the world.
Nothing more beautiful than the voice
Of the beloved, calling our name.
In so many poems we hear it.
In so many poems, we answer.
Or this:
When you are sad
The Book grows larger
As if to comfort you.
When you despair
It can narrow
To a single poem.
And when joy
Arrives - hard
To read at all.
Blinking at
Page-dazzle;
The words
Breaking apart
Into letters,
Dancing there,
Unable to calm down.
Or this:
How lucky we are
That you can't sell
A poem, that it has
No value. Might
As well
Give it away.
The poem you love,
That saved your life,
Wasn't it given to you?
If these kinds of poems speak to you, then you will love this book, and if not, well then read something else because the world is full of great books and poetry.
April 11, 2024
i read most of this book while sitting with my best friend while she was in hospice. some of it i read aloud. some of it i just read silently and held in my heart. i am only rating it four stars because i am not a poetry enthusiast so i'm sure much of the craft of orr's work is lost on me-- i only know it meant the world to me, and i found it just as i needed it.
October 31, 2025
I want these words tattooed all over my body
August 1, 2020
If Kahlil Gibran and Mary Oliver had a book child= Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved.
January 3, 2024
“sudden shower of golden leaves descending from the maple. shameless beloved, undressing in public again.”
December 9, 2024
To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but...
If we're not supposed to dance, why all this music.
Just brilliant.
But the spark.
That's crudely put, but...
If we're not supposed to dance, why all this music.
Just brilliant.
June 14, 2012
Ambitious, but not captivating. Orr treads in the territory of Whitman, writing on simple truths in finding the world within words and oneself, yet the result is all of the passion without the snuff. The same thesis is tirelessly repeated throughout the entire book without much elaboration; things a little too abstracted, too surface-written. I found that the poems which touched on particular narratives tended to strike me; the obvious truths beautiful on the first iteration, yet skimming material on the third and fourth. The "beloved" became so abstracted that it sunk into near meaninglessness for me. However, still possessed some beautiful moments, so I do not wholly regret taking the two hours.
August 4, 2014
A book of relating to our own metaphysical element and that of others present and long past. A way to deal with loss and eventually being lost. A suggestion in how to find the resonance of your own metaphor in the world around you. A book I will be happy to read again in a couple years, because by then it will mean something different to me.
January 13, 2023
me, every 2.5 pages: this is the best part of this book. surely this is the best part of this book. this has got to be the best part of this book. now this is the best part of this book. for sure this
March 21, 2009
i re-read this book all the time
May 18, 2023
Every word is an atom of perfection and thought a breath of resurrection
August 7, 2018
It might be all the silence, it might be because it was exactly what I needed to hear but this book of poetry from Gregory Orr is simply fantastic. I am able to take time in each line, each space, each movement from word to word he creates and add myself, my whole self, warts and all to the spaces he creates for grief, loss, love and healing.
It is certainly not overtly religious but as a religious person who uses "beloved" language often I found so many of his poems a wonderful place dwell richly in. To visualize and use meditatively and as prayer and spiritual connection.
If that's not your bag, I am 100% sure you will find your own space, your own losses, loves, hopes and realities in the space his poems make.
It is certainly not overtly religious but as a religious person who uses "beloved" language often I found so many of his poems a wonderful place dwell richly in. To visualize and use meditatively and as prayer and spiritual connection.
If that's not your bag, I am 100% sure you will find your own space, your own losses, loves, hopes and realities in the space his poems make.
October 9, 2018
I enjoyed this book. It was suggested to me after my friend passed away so maybe that's why I enjoyed it more, I can't be sure. As some people have pointed out, yes he uses certain words repetitively. I don't mind it though, because the book reads as one you would not sit down and read straight through. It begs to be picked up and randomly plucked through when you're feeling desperately empty or alone. Good read when dealing with loss.
Read
October 5, 2023Now the snow is falling
Even more than an hour ago.
The pine in the backyard
Bows with the weight of it.
Two years ago, my father
Died. What love we had,
Hidden under misery,
Weighed down with years
Of silence.
And now,
Maybe the poem can release
Us, maybe the poem can express
The love and let the rest
Slide to the earth as the snow
Does now, freeing the tree
Of its burden.
Whew.
And also
To see the world and say it true
Means starting with loss.
Even more than an hour ago.
The pine in the backyard
Bows with the weight of it.
Two years ago, my father
Died. What love we had,
Hidden under misery,
Weighed down with years
Of silence.
And now,
Maybe the poem can release
Us, maybe the poem can express
The love and let the rest
Slide to the earth as the snow
Does now, freeing the tree
Of its burden.
Whew.
And also
To see the world and say it true
Means starting with loss.
January 23, 2024
If there’s one book that everyone should read at some point in their life……….. it’s this
Why should the grave be final?
Why should death be everything?
Isn’t the world wonderful?
Don’t we want more of it?
And in poems, life goes on
Forever.
Life and more life
Piled up in the Book.
Intensities and griefs
And pleasures accumulating
From centuries past, for centuries
To come.
And laughing at the notion
Of centuries, laughing
Not at time
But at the idea of finality.
Why should the grave be final?
Why should death be everything?
Isn’t the world wonderful?
Don’t we want more of it?
And in poems, life goes on
Forever.
Life and more life
Piled up in the Book.
Intensities and griefs
And pleasures accumulating
From centuries past, for centuries
To come.
And laughing at the notion
Of centuries, laughing
Not at time
But at the idea of finality.
April 6, 2021
Absolutely stunning book of poetry. A sensitive and touching treatment of love and loss. I'm not sure literal prose could begin to touch the grief of loss, but these poems might. You will have to decide. I think it helps to know about the author's past a bit. His life is such a context for these poems, or that's my thought as I read them.
January 11, 2026
A beautiful, if repetitive long poem about grief and acceptance through poetry and love. I really enjoyed it, but there were parts that felt like I had just read the same thing a few pages earlier. With that said, worth even rereading.
November 5, 2017
A wonderful, true, uplifting book.
May 30, 2019
hmmm dropped halfway
May 26, 2020
We’ll lay here for years or for hours; thrown here or found, to freeze or to thaw. So long we’d become the flowers; two corpses we were, two corpses I saw. They’d find us in a week.
June 16, 2020
New poet to add to my list of Favorite Poets.
June 5, 2022
"Reciprocity--it all comes down
To that.
As with lovers:
When it's right you can't say
Who is kissing whom."
To that.
As with lovers:
When it's right you can't say
Who is kissing whom."
October 31, 2022
"To be alive: not just the carcass
but the spark.
That's crudely put, but...
If we're not supposed to dance,
why all this music?"
but the spark.
That's crudely put, but...
If we're not supposed to dance,
why all this music?"
Read
May 29, 2024“To be alive: not just the carcass
But the spark.
That’s crudely put, but...
If we’re not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?”
But the spark.
That’s crudely put, but...
If we’re not supposed to dance,
Why all this music?”
October 1, 2024
"The beloved marches toward us,
Cannot be resisted.
Throw down our weapons
And beg for mercy.
This much love defeats us."
Cannot be resisted.
Throw down our weapons
And beg for mercy.
This much love defeats us."
February 2, 2025
“If death, then grief, right?
Well, yes, but also
Relief, release. And love
That goes past death, that
Keeps the connection
So many think death severs.”
Well, yes, but also
Relief, release. And love
That goes past death, that
Keeps the connection
So many think death severs.”
December 19, 2020
Lovely.
June 8, 2010
I recently read an interview with the poet that piqued my curiosity and sent me to the library in search of this book.
The results are mixed, to say the least.
Orr’s thesis: All art (all the poetry, music, paintings, books, etc—all of what Erasmus of Rotterdam coined “The Great Discussion”) make up a single metaphorical book. This book is the book of the world and is actually a more faithful representation of the world than is the literal world. The book is constantly growing as more and more artists contribute. Each of us opens the book and takes out the stuff we need to help us get through life. What we place in the book will serve this purpose for future generations. It is the Book that is the Body of the Beloved which is the World. The book is a 197 page meditative love song to the metaphorical book.
On the one hand, this idea appeals to me very much. I think of it as a sort of Pop-culture pseudo-Cabala. On the other hand, I could see iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and Universal Studios chomping at the bit to make this quaint notion a widely held belief. It screams Reaganomics. And, after all, how much better would we all feel about ourselves if we could espouse a spiritual consumerism? If Orr were a better poet, I wouldn’t give a damn about any of this. I am not above loving the hell out of a book in spite of its ethically or logically suspicious philosophical underpinnings.
Orr is a lyric poet of some breathtaking powers, but more and more as the volume rolls on, he becomes a lyricist in the worst possible sense. More than once I found myself wondering if he wouldn’t have been much happier writing songs, say, along the lines of Air Supply. The interviewer commended his courageous sentimentality, which sounds good, but reading this book I was often-times embarrassed at the insipid sappiness. Parts of it are down right eye-rolling, which is frustrating because at his best Orr is inspiring. Unfortunately there are not enough awesome parts to justify the deluge of brie.
The results are mixed, to say the least.
Orr’s thesis: All art (all the poetry, music, paintings, books, etc—all of what Erasmus of Rotterdam coined “The Great Discussion”) make up a single metaphorical book. This book is the book of the world and is actually a more faithful representation of the world than is the literal world. The book is constantly growing as more and more artists contribute. Each of us opens the book and takes out the stuff we need to help us get through life. What we place in the book will serve this purpose for future generations. It is the Book that is the Body of the Beloved which is the World. The book is a 197 page meditative love song to the metaphorical book.
On the one hand, this idea appeals to me very much. I think of it as a sort of Pop-culture pseudo-Cabala. On the other hand, I could see iTunes, Barnes & Noble, and Universal Studios chomping at the bit to make this quaint notion a widely held belief. It screams Reaganomics. And, after all, how much better would we all feel about ourselves if we could espouse a spiritual consumerism? If Orr were a better poet, I wouldn’t give a damn about any of this. I am not above loving the hell out of a book in spite of its ethically or logically suspicious philosophical underpinnings.
Orr is a lyric poet of some breathtaking powers, but more and more as the volume rolls on, he becomes a lyricist in the worst possible sense. More than once I found myself wondering if he wouldn’t have been much happier writing songs, say, along the lines of Air Supply. The interviewer commended his courageous sentimentality, which sounds good, but reading this book I was often-times embarrassed at the insipid sappiness. Parts of it are down right eye-rolling, which is frustrating because at his best Orr is inspiring. Unfortunately there are not enough awesome parts to justify the deluge of brie.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews