The Life

by Carrie Fountain

An acclaimed poet deepens her exploration of the domestic in a new collection of playful and wise poems

The poems in Carrie Fountain's third collection, The Life, exist somewhere, as Rilke says, between our daily life and the great work--an interstitial space where sidelong glances live alongside shouts to heaven. In elegant, colloquial language, Fountain observes her children dressing themselves in fledgling layers of personhood, creating their own private worlds and personalities, and makes room for genuine marvels in the midst of routine. Attuned to the delicate, fleeting moments that together comprise a life, these poems offer a guide by which to navigate the signs and symbols, and to pilot if not the perfect life, the only life, the life we are given.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 2021

About the author

Born and raised in Mesilla, New Mexico, Carrie Fountain’s debut collection of poems, Burn Lake, was a National Poetry Series winner and was published in 2010 by Penguin. Penguin published her second collection, Instant Winner, in 2014. Her poems have appeared in Tin House, Poetry, and The New Yorker, among others.

A former fellow at the James A. Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, Fountain is writer-in-residence at St. Edward’s University in Austin, where she lives with her husband, playwright and novelist Kirk Lynn, and their two children.

Her first novel, I’m Not Missing, will be published in July of 2018 by Flatiron Books.

Reviews

[Allison Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t even want to talk technique. This gets five stars for pure enjoyment and for the act of reaching me exactly where I am. The children, the tiredness, the creative and procreative tug of war, the keen need for an ear or a heart or an understanding above all this. The sacredness of all this.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrie Fountain is one of my favorite poets because her work is so engaging and this book continues with that tradition. And as the title suggests these poems explore a life and catch the daily moments of family and well, life. What I love about her book is while it is focused on the details, it helps us see the larger picture, answer or explore the deeper parts of living. So many moments in this book to return to--lyrical and a stunning collection of poems.

[Pruett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrie Fountain's poems make me want to cry, and I often finish them not knowing exactly why.

"The Parable of the Gifts" and "Will You?" are my favorites from this collection.

Ugh. I'm going to go reminiscence on my childhood and do my laundry, I guess.

Five stars.

[Hannah Showalter · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5! Carrie Fountain's poetry is astounding, and I loved this collection from her! Small, seemingly simple poems discussing motherhood and everyday life, each with an ending that will leave you reeling.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautiful collection from one of my favorite poets.

[Renée Roehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5

Straight talking--it appears--poems about the pedestrian in life: motherhood, household things like plumbers, nightmares, cooking, quitting smoking, drinking coffee, along with other bits & pieces within the mind of the narrator, but I found that all of the poems morphed into the macro-cosmic view of something deeper, more expansive.

Right up my alley.

There are nods to Larry Levis here, I'd say, (who is one of my long time favs) given some title choices and how the longer poems meander from the the workaday into the lyrical then land in surprising places. I also enjoyed the couplets Fountain uses in most poems and felt it added to the poems.

I liked this book, her newest, so much that I'm buying another.

[Zara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think overall this collection is really a 3 for me - a bunch that don’t really stir me - but the few that I love, I really, truly love. Moms writing about the beautiful & specific & mundane of momhood is my preferred genre, ya know?

[Mary Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this as a birthday present with no idea what to expect, and I enjoyed reading it so much. Each poem was excellently crafted and delightful to read, but certain ones in particular left me stunned. Fountain masterfully weaves together the mundane and the spiritual. Will be reading these again.

[Samantha]

Sealey Challenge 2023
Book 13

[Aumaine Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

One-sitting read, very clear, often uncomplicated, laugh out loud at points. Ease of image/syntax/diction, voice-y

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In her distinctive voice, Fountain searches for the holy in the particulars of everyday experience, offering up these insights gleaned from childcare and housework as a mother and wife. Many of these poems seem like they’re half baked and still gooey in the middle.

Favorite Poems:
“Cold”
“One Way”
“The Parable of the Gifts”
“Poem with a Dream of the Future in It”
“Nothing Is Holy”

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Carrie Fountain’s “The Life” begins with an epigraph by Rilke, which functions as a lens through which to read the poems in this volume: “But somewhere there is an ancient enmity between our daily life and the great work. Help me, in saying it, to understand it.”

The poems that follow speak of the daily, the ordinary, the lived, all subject to time’s march forward. Among my favorites are “The Parable of the Gifts,” “How to Have a Happy Marriage,” “Nothing Is Holy,” “The Spirit Asks,” and “Will You?” The latter features lines that stun and ring true: “My children are so young / when I turn off the radio as the news turns // to counting the dead or naming the act, / they aren’t even suspicious. My children // are so young they cannot imagine a world / like the one they live in.”

The positionality of the mother in relation to her children and the wider world is central to the impact of so many poems in this collection. Nearly every word rings true—and powerfully, achingly so at times—for me.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about life, growing up, family, and motherhood.

from The Life: "Theirs / is a heaven with no elsewhere, // a heaven with no hell. / For them there are three times: // the beforelife, which is nothing, / the life, and the afterlife, which is // everything. Who knows? Maybe / they're right."

from Cold: "I think he's going to // turn good, my son says. / And I say, Hope so, because // I know how much he loves a bad guy / who just needs one experience // of goodness to turn good / himself—good again, finally // good, his evil so simple, just pain / and fear and shame"

from First: "My heart is so giant / this evening, like one of those moons / so full it's disturbing, so full that / if you see it when you're get of the car you have to go inside the house / and make someone else come out / and see it for themselves."

[Cate Tedford · Rating 5 out of 5]

good. amazing. wonderful. yes. will revisit often:)

"... We're here
so briefly, the voice under his words says,
and we see so dimly; awful things have
happened to us, or will; we love our children
more than we are equipped to love anyone,
would die or kill for them, and we love
our own people even after they hurt us,
sometimes even more then, and yet we fail
at loving our neighbor; our only true weapon
is empathy and we fail again and again to use
it; and the one and only reason we must
love this inadequate world is because we have
no other choice, we have no other place
but this place..."

[Laura McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought it for the glitter. I really did. Not just the cover but partly the cover because look at the glue with the glitter stuck to it! But before I saw the cover, I read the poem, and anyone who can write like that about the angst of telling your kids they can’t put glitter on their valentines and then changing your mind is the poet for me, I said, and I wasn’t disappointed. Every single poem is as true and complicated and rueful and honest as the glitter poem. To be able to speak like this is the goal, the consolation, the bomb, the balm. I already want to buy copies for everybody.

[Katie Bowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was a really beautiful illustration of a woman's life as a teacher, poet, mother, and wife. Fountain crafts poems that create an almost magical world grounded in realism for readers who understand and can identify those moments of exhaustion or despair or fear or awe in parenting or marriage. I personally love seeing these representations of motherhood in poets.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning. Some of these poems took my breath away. There was a slight religious slant I wasn't expecting, and yet, this collection of poetry is one I will not forget. Carrie Fountain makes the mundane moments of motherhood absolutely beautiful.

Favorites:
Self-Help
The Answer
The Jungle
Will You?
My Own American Poem

[Taylor Napolsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was continuously moved by these tender, profound poems. I love how it homes in on the mundane, but makes big points out of it, the whole universe coming together within these thoughts about domesticity and childrearing, for something relatably cosmic.

[amanda abel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Burn Lake I think will always be my favorite of her collections (or is thus far), this is a strong book with many excellent poems. I love her style, her descriptive power, and the way she makes the ordinary moments occasionally transcendent.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a few poems I really love and some great lines. I appreciate the exploration of the mundane stuff of life: in this case mostly motherhood. However, many of the poems are almost too simple, like there isn't another layer there. Still, it's an enjoyable and worthwhile collection.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts were brilliant, more were pedestrian.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few poems I really liked and one I loved ("The Jungle") but a lot of it just felt facile, like unexceptional prose with line breaks.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful collection of poems on motherhood and life.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. I didn’t love it. I didn’t hate it. I hate it when I am neutral. Neutrality kinda sucks.

[Jonathan Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I've ever read a collection of poems that flowed so perfectly with one another, under one distinct title, the way this one did. Magnificent and important work. 🤘

[Angelina · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I finished reading, I felt full.

[Ariel Kaplowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

So true and so genius and so generous and gentle.

[RubyMae Phillipy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was an amazing collection of poems about motherhood, religion, loss, change, etc. that I really related to and felt for. Totally recommend and is a fun and easy read.

[Susan Feldt · Rating 4 out of 5]

this met me exactly where I am

[luna rey hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite poem: Will You?

“... Their God is still / a real God, a whole God, a God made wholly / of actions. And I think they think I work / for that God. ...”