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The Missing Mountain: New and Selected Poems
A collection of poetry spanning the career of distinguished poet Michael Collier.
Whether Michael Collier is writing about an airline disaster, a friendship with a disgraced Catholic bishop, his father’s encounter with Charles Lindbergh, Lebanese beekeepers, a mother’s sewing machine, or a piano in the woods, he does so with the syntactic verve, scrupulously observed detail, and a flawless ear that has made him one of America’s most distinguished poets. These poems cross expanses, connecting the fear of missing love and the bliss of holding it, the ways we speak to ourselves and language we use with others, and deep personal grief and shadows of world history.
The Missing Mountain brings together a lifetime of work, chronicling Collier’s long and distinguished career as a poet and teacher. These selections, both of previously published and new poems, chart the development of Collier’s art and the cultivations of his passions and concerns.
Whether Michael Collier is writing about an airline disaster, a friendship with a disgraced Catholic bishop, his father’s encounter with Charles Lindbergh, Lebanese beekeepers, a mother’s sewing machine, or a piano in the woods, he does so with the syntactic verve, scrupulously observed detail, and a flawless ear that has made him one of America’s most distinguished poets. These poems cross expanses, connecting the fear of missing love and the bliss of holding it, the ways we speak to ourselves and language we use with others, and deep personal grief and shadows of world history.
The Missing Mountain brings together a lifetime of work, chronicling Collier’s long and distinguished career as a poet and teacher. These selections, both of previously published and new poems, chart the development of Collier’s art and the cultivations of his passions and concerns.
- GenresPoetry
208 pages, Paperback
Published August 27, 2021
10 people want to read
About the author
Michael Collier
18 books6 followersMichael Robert Collier is an American poet, teacher, creative writing program administrator and editor. He has published five books of original poetry, a translation of Euripedes' Medea, a book of prose pieces about poetry, and has edited three anthologies of poetry. From 2001 to 2004 he was the Poet Laureate of Maryland. As of 2011, he is the director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, a professor of creative writing at the University of Maryland, College Park and the poetry editorial consultant for Houghton Mifflin (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt).
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 8, 2021
I was delighted with my introduction to 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 — a representation of Michael Collier’s body of work. Due to growing up and living in South Africa (I imagine), I’d not encountered his poetry. The 160 page volume of previously published and new poems brings together the presiding influences of Collier’s life, early and later.
Collier, the author of eight collections (including 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏) is a poet of warmth, wit, profundity and compassion. Whether writing about an airline disaster, a friendship with a disgraced Catholic bishop, his father’s encounter with Charles Lindbergh, Lebanese beekeepers, a mother’s sewing machine, or a piano in the woods, he does so with scrupulous observation, and a flawless ear.
In an interview with Brian Brodeur on the blog ‘How a Poem Happens’, it is interesting to read Collier’s comments on his process: “Four years from writing to publication is not unusual for one of my poems. I don’t have any rules about this, but such a languorous turnover rate is in keeping with the slow and deliberate approach I’ve developed over the years. I want the sentences to be as interesting, complicated and lucid as possible, and, for me, this takes time …
I prefer poems that find their transcendence and sublimity in the details of the natural world and in the sloppy mess of social interactions. In the end, there’s not one right way of producing poems. What matters is that we write the poems we are capable of writing. Some of us will write poems that have dark glass eyes and long snouts and hang on walls, and some of us will write poems that spread through neighborhoods like a thin sheet of irrigation water”.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 poems are distinctive, memorable and powerful. And, I did shed a tear when I read ‘Penn Relays’ and ‘To the Muse of the Dying’.
A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @uchicagopress for a DRC of 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏: 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒎𝒔 (𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝑬𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏) by Michael Collier.
Collier, the author of eight collections (including 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏) is a poet of warmth, wit, profundity and compassion. Whether writing about an airline disaster, a friendship with a disgraced Catholic bishop, his father’s encounter with Charles Lindbergh, Lebanese beekeepers, a mother’s sewing machine, or a piano in the woods, he does so with scrupulous observation, and a flawless ear.
In an interview with Brian Brodeur on the blog ‘How a Poem Happens’, it is interesting to read Collier’s comments on his process: “Four years from writing to publication is not unusual for one of my poems. I don’t have any rules about this, but such a languorous turnover rate is in keeping with the slow and deliberate approach I’ve developed over the years. I want the sentences to be as interesting, complicated and lucid as possible, and, for me, this takes time …
I prefer poems that find their transcendence and sublimity in the details of the natural world and in the sloppy mess of social interactions. In the end, there’s not one right way of producing poems. What matters is that we write the poems we are capable of writing. Some of us will write poems that have dark glass eyes and long snouts and hang on walls, and some of us will write poems that spread through neighborhoods like a thin sheet of irrigation water”.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 poems are distinctive, memorable and powerful. And, I did shed a tear when I read ‘Penn Relays’ and ‘To the Muse of the Dying’.
A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @uchicagopress for a DRC of 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑴𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏: 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑺𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒎𝒔 (𝑺𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒅 𝑬𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏) by Michael Collier.
September 8, 2021
Although I have only read the new poems of Michael Collier's book, I am giving the book a 5-star review. These poems are brilliant and thought-provoking in their quotidian topics of love, domesticity and death. There is no evidence of Darwinian peacockery in his use of language. It's a pared down hard-won wisdom and genius. Yet, I found myself writing in the margins about the ideas he stimulated thinking about his poems. "Bee to Keeper" deserves to be anthologized a century from now when future readers will see what type of poetry was being written in 2021. A sample:
"Your intelligence (bee speaking about the bee keeper) allows you to see further than we
who don't really see at all as much as gather
information trapped in light....
.... knowing in your work
how easy it is to crush us, we, who are so many
we seem to care little about ourselves, making
inadvertencies our deaths, literally, at your hands,
acts of self-forgiveness-- such is the definition
of the greater good. And yet the scent released
when we're crushed incites us to attack.
Our fear, so much less than yours, means we'll find a way
to penetrate your gear, and when we do, we'll see who
calmest-- the feel of us on your skin, the sight of us
in your hood, our everywhere whirr of wings."
Wallace Stevens, the act of imagination, the grace of simple acts of love,
the permanence of love and admiration of a father despite the cruelties
of aging and death.... this lifetime of craft that allows Collier to write
these gems are a gift to readers and deserves thanks for the opportunity
to share in its revelations. Thank you Michael Collier.
"Your intelligence (bee speaking about the bee keeper) allows you to see further than we
who don't really see at all as much as gather
information trapped in light....
.... knowing in your work
how easy it is to crush us, we, who are so many
we seem to care little about ourselves, making
inadvertencies our deaths, literally, at your hands,
acts of self-forgiveness-- such is the definition
of the greater good. And yet the scent released
when we're crushed incites us to attack.
Our fear, so much less than yours, means we'll find a way
to penetrate your gear, and when we do, we'll see who
calmest-- the feel of us on your skin, the sight of us
in your hood, our everywhere whirr of wings."
Wallace Stevens, the act of imagination, the grace of simple acts of love,
the permanence of love and admiration of a father despite the cruelties
of aging and death.... this lifetime of craft that allows Collier to write
these gems are a gift to readers and deserves thanks for the opportunity
to share in its revelations. Thank you Michael Collier.
March 12, 2024
Solid collection of selected poems. I marked several poems throughout the collection to return to and admire once more.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews