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Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet
In late-1940s Long Branch, a historic but run-down Jersey Shore resort town, in a neighborhood of Italian, Black, and Jewish families, Robert Pinsky began his unlikely journey to becoming a poet. Descended from a bootlegger grandfather, an athletic father, and a rebellious tomboy mother, Pinsky was an unruly but articulate high school C student, whose obsession with the rhythms and melodies of speech inspired him to write.
Pinsky traces the roots of his poetry, with its wide and fearless range, back to the voices of his neighborhood, to music and a distinctly American tradition of improvisation, with influences including Mark Twain and Ray Charles, Marianne Moore and Mel Brooks, Emily Dickinson and Sid Caesar, Dante Alighieri and the Orthodox Jewish liturgy. He reflects on how writing poetry helped him make sense of life’s challenges, such as his mother’s traumatic brain injury, and on his notable public presence, including an unprecedented three terms as United States poet laureate.
Candid, engaging, and wry, Jersey Breaks offers an intimate self-portrait and a unique poetic understanding of American culture.
Pinsky traces the roots of his poetry, with its wide and fearless range, back to the voices of his neighborhood, to music and a distinctly American tradition of improvisation, with influences including Mark Twain and Ray Charles, Marianne Moore and Mel Brooks, Emily Dickinson and Sid Caesar, Dante Alighieri and the Orthodox Jewish liturgy. He reflects on how writing poetry helped him make sense of life’s challenges, such as his mother’s traumatic brain injury, and on his notable public presence, including an unprecedented three terms as United States poet laureate.
Candid, engaging, and wry, Jersey Breaks offers an intimate self-portrait and a unique poetic understanding of American culture.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2022
24 people are currently reading
1589 people want to read
About the author
Robert Pinsky
123 books134 followersRobert Pinsky is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of which are collections of his own poetry. His published work also includes critically acclaimed translations, including The Inferno of Dante Alighieri and The Separate Notebooks by Czesław Miłosz. He teaches at Boston University and is the poetry editor at Slate.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
August 14, 2022
Growing up in a historic, perpetually declining American resort town, with families of year-round Hispanic and South Asian newcomers beginning to arrive, I could see that nearly everybody feels like an outsider, one way or another.
from Jersey Breaks by Robert Pinsky
In 1998 my husband gifted me The Figured Wheel by Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States. But the real impetus for reading Pinsky’s memoir was 1) I am always interested in writers and their stories, and 2) a friend grew up in Long Branch, NJ, and her family married into Pinsky’s family and as a girl she called him ‘cousin’. I could learn about her hometown and about the poet at the same time!
I loved reading about Pinsky’s discovery of literature and poetry, the magic of words. The books that captivated him as a child, the poets in his personal canon. And, I enjoyed his stories about his colorful family, growing up Jewish Orthodox with a grandfather who worked for a famous crime kingpin.
How could the book I loved trick me that way? With so few words? Then, I felt wonder. How was something so real created in such a small space? How had the writer built so much inside my mind? A kind of question I keep trying to answer.
from Jersey Breaks by Robert Pinsky
I understood Pinksy’s marveling on the magic of stories. As a girl, I realized that a book affected my emotions and spurred my imagination. Writers were powerful. I have spent my life trying to understanding how they do it.
“Language-drunk,” he describes himself, drawn from the saxophone to Yeats Sailing to Byzantium, a conversion to poetry; he explains, “But what I try to do in my poems is almost exactly what I wanted to do with the horn.”
The book is far ranging, incorporating Pinksy’s family, teachers, other poets, insight into his own poetry. He explains what drives his poetry, the music of language, the rhythm and drive of words.
One of my favorite chapters addresses the vagaries of fame, how for some, fame is short term and fades while those ignored later rise to acclaim. We are driven to work for excellence, but fame does not always result.
His work with deaf and blind poets was so interesting. The hand sign for poetry is “a fountain-like burst of five fingers opening out from the heart,” he shares.
…Poetry does not merely put particular feeling and ideas into language, it creates an experience that reminds us of something beyond any particular feelings and ideas.
from Jersey Breaks by Robert Pinsky
Granted, I would have gained more from some parts of the book had I read all of his contemporary poets that he discusses. But I found it an interesting read. And, I have taken that gifted book off the shelf to revisit his poems.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through Net Galley. My review is fair and unbiased.
from Jersey Breaks by Robert Pinsky
In 1998 my husband gifted me The Figured Wheel by Robert Pinsky, Poet Laureate of the United States. But the real impetus for reading Pinsky’s memoir was 1) I am always interested in writers and their stories, and 2) a friend grew up in Long Branch, NJ, and her family married into Pinsky’s family and as a girl she called him ‘cousin’. I could learn about her hometown and about the poet at the same time!
I loved reading about Pinsky’s discovery of literature and poetry, the magic of words. The books that captivated him as a child, the poets in his personal canon. And, I enjoyed his stories about his colorful family, growing up Jewish Orthodox with a grandfather who worked for a famous crime kingpin.
How could the book I loved trick me that way? With so few words? Then, I felt wonder. How was something so real created in such a small space? How had the writer built so much inside my mind? A kind of question I keep trying to answer.
from Jersey Breaks by Robert Pinsky
I understood Pinksy’s marveling on the magic of stories. As a girl, I realized that a book affected my emotions and spurred my imagination. Writers were powerful. I have spent my life trying to understanding how they do it.
“Language-drunk,” he describes himself, drawn from the saxophone to Yeats Sailing to Byzantium, a conversion to poetry; he explains, “But what I try to do in my poems is almost exactly what I wanted to do with the horn.”
The book is far ranging, incorporating Pinksy’s family, teachers, other poets, insight into his own poetry. He explains what drives his poetry, the music of language, the rhythm and drive of words.
One of my favorite chapters addresses the vagaries of fame, how for some, fame is short term and fades while those ignored later rise to acclaim. We are driven to work for excellence, but fame does not always result.
His work with deaf and blind poets was so interesting. The hand sign for poetry is “a fountain-like burst of five fingers opening out from the heart,” he shares.
…Poetry does not merely put particular feeling and ideas into language, it creates an experience that reminds us of something beyond any particular feelings and ideas.
from Jersey Breaks by Robert Pinsky
Granted, I would have gained more from some parts of the book had I read all of his contemporary poets that he discusses. But I found it an interesting read. And, I have taken that gifted book off the shelf to revisit his poems.
I received a free egalley from the publisher through Net Galley. My review is fair and unbiased.
Read
July 28, 2023*nonfiction - not rating*
𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙙, 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙧𝙮, 𝙅𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙮 𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙨 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛-𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.
I listened to the audiobook of this one, I usually always prefer audio when it comes to nonfiction. I honestly wasn’t too familiar with Robert Pinsky before listening to this story, but I’m so glad I learned so much through it.
I’m not too familiar with what it takes to become a poet, but I find myself intrigued by the topic. Pinsky’s experience growing up had me invested and engaged. It was very fascinating reading about a kid from New Jersey becoming and living his life as a poet.
I’m not someone who ever gravitates to reading or writing poetry, but I think this memoir opened up an interesting take on it.
There was so much to this poet’s life from very early on, I requested the audio on a whim from NetGalley, but I’m so glad I did. It’s not something I ever thought I would enjoy, but I did find it so interesting regarding poetry.
Thank you so much NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the review ALC in exchange for my honest review!
𝘾𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙙, 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙬𝙧𝙮, 𝙅𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙮 𝘽𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙨 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛-𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙚 𝙥𝙤𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙘𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚.
I listened to the audiobook of this one, I usually always prefer audio when it comes to nonfiction. I honestly wasn’t too familiar with Robert Pinsky before listening to this story, but I’m so glad I learned so much through it.
I’m not too familiar with what it takes to become a poet, but I find myself intrigued by the topic. Pinsky’s experience growing up had me invested and engaged. It was very fascinating reading about a kid from New Jersey becoming and living his life as a poet.
I’m not someone who ever gravitates to reading or writing poetry, but I think this memoir opened up an interesting take on it.
There was so much to this poet’s life from very early on, I requested the audio on a whim from NetGalley, but I’m so glad I did. It’s not something I ever thought I would enjoy, but I did find it so interesting regarding poetry.
Thank you so much NetGalley and HighBridge Audio for the review ALC in exchange for my honest review!
Read
April 16, 2024Like most writers, I am always interested in reading about the lives and inspirations of other writers. Pinsky gives us a sustained look at the world he grew up in and the world he inhabits in clear-eyed, thoughtful, occasionally wry or outright funny fashion. His prose style is quite different from his poetic style, but the sensibilities remain constant, and I appreciate this about his writing and, by extension, I imagine his personhood as well. The themes in this book resonate with the themes in his poetry collections: place, memory, loss, despair, love, trauma, crisis, reflection, above all, the importance of paying attention, deeply and consistently, to both self and surroundings, as well as maintaining sustained interest in others as a means of seeing the world in as many ways as possible.
October 24, 2025
new jersey really is the center of the universe
February 6, 2025
Some of the commentary about poetry went over my head as I’m not largely familiar with the craft but as someone from small town New Jersey who’s lived in multiple states, there’s huge resonance here. I can’t wait to return to this book again and again.
January 22, 2023
There are images, names, places, and motifs, appearing as soon as the first page, that lingered in my mind throughout the rest of my time reading Jersey Breaks, not because of any further direct connections or references, but because of a captivating quality; one suspects that this effect mirrors the fact that they have been enduring sources of fascination for Robert Pinsky, too, for whatever reason, whether their sounds, or their associations, or simply the ideas of them, enough so to be worthy of even brief mention here. The ones presented earliest in the book, and those that manifested themselves earliest in his life, are artifacts of his life in New Jersey. He mentions the names of stops on the New York and Long Branch Railroad—“Little Silver, Hazlet, Perth Amboy, Rahway and Secaucus”—towns about which he doesn’t know much, but whose names “made a familiar, seductive music”; the degree of this kind of connection, similar to my own loose knowledge of those names—recognition, not much personal familiarity, but mystical, magical impressions—made my own New Jersey–based connection to Pinsky seem heightened, as it did when my more specific knowledge of a locale also matched his, as when his band auditions at a familiar German restaurant in Atlantic Highlands
Pinsky proves himself gifted at turns of phrase that are almost literal turns, the kinds of paragraph-cappers that seem almost like abrupt shifts at first, before one realizes the perfectly fluid continuation—across vastly disparate topics, themes, times, or places—of the line of thought which he is prompting or provoking, demonstrating a clear sense of history—of New Jersey, of poetry, and beyond—but disregarding cause-and-effect linearity in a traditional sense, collapsing time and space for his convenience. He excels at the larger-scale transition too, transforming his material as he shifts his focus over the course of the book from a location (New Jersey) to an identity (poet), the gradual nature of this movement in keeping with the way in which he came to realize that various of his apparently unrelated, and unproductive, habits in fact defined his calling as a poet. Just as his understanding of himself as a poet came indirectly, so is Jersey Breaks an indirect making-of-a-poet narrative, by way of being more about the making of the interests, obsessions, and behaviors that then prove to be those of a poet.
While there are elements mentioned once in Jersey Breaks that hover in one’s consciousness, there are others—incidents, settings, emotions—that are repeated multiple times, which you can tell continue to nag at Pinsky in a more direct manner, as niggles, or worse (perhaps the most consistently mentioned one is despair, which I noticed appearing with surprising, and appealing, frequency, and which forms a compelling framework for a certain reading of the book—sources of despair, gulfs of despair, the opposites of despair; despair as “the worst of sins in that it disables grace”; poems about despair being poems about hope; form as the opposite despair). He begins in terms of New Jersey and ends in terms of poetry, but the point of the whole is the inseparability of all it from who he is, who he was and who he remains. Early on, he notes that in his poetry, he aims for a democratic engagement with his readers, that “the medium I write for is not performance [Stage] and not paper [Page], but any reader’s actual or imagined voice,” and he achieved a similar effect with his autobiographical writing for me, his territory, his personality, and his appreciations all intersecting with my own.
Pinsky proves himself gifted at turns of phrase that are almost literal turns, the kinds of paragraph-cappers that seem almost like abrupt shifts at first, before one realizes the perfectly fluid continuation—across vastly disparate topics, themes, times, or places—of the line of thought which he is prompting or provoking, demonstrating a clear sense of history—of New Jersey, of poetry, and beyond—but disregarding cause-and-effect linearity in a traditional sense, collapsing time and space for his convenience. He excels at the larger-scale transition too, transforming his material as he shifts his focus over the course of the book from a location (New Jersey) to an identity (poet), the gradual nature of this movement in keeping with the way in which he came to realize that various of his apparently unrelated, and unproductive, habits in fact defined his calling as a poet. Just as his understanding of himself as a poet came indirectly, so is Jersey Breaks an indirect making-of-a-poet narrative, by way of being more about the making of the interests, obsessions, and behaviors that then prove to be those of a poet.
While there are elements mentioned once in Jersey Breaks that hover in one’s consciousness, there are others—incidents, settings, emotions—that are repeated multiple times, which you can tell continue to nag at Pinsky in a more direct manner, as niggles, or worse (perhaps the most consistently mentioned one is despair, which I noticed appearing with surprising, and appealing, frequency, and which forms a compelling framework for a certain reading of the book—sources of despair, gulfs of despair, the opposites of despair; despair as “the worst of sins in that it disables grace”; poems about despair being poems about hope; form as the opposite despair). He begins in terms of New Jersey and ends in terms of poetry, but the point of the whole is the inseparability of all it from who he is, who he was and who he remains. Early on, he notes that in his poetry, he aims for a democratic engagement with his readers, that “the medium I write for is not performance [Stage] and not paper [Page], but any reader’s actual or imagined voice,” and he achieved a similar effect with his autobiographical writing for me, his territory, his personality, and his appreciations all intersecting with my own.
September 23, 2022
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher W. W. Norton & Company for an advanced copy of this autobiography on the making of a poet.
Writers are constantly asked where they get their ideas from. A question that I have always wanted to ask was where did the idea that you were a writer come from? What formed the idea in your head that hmm I could do this. Robert Pinsky's answer might be, I was formed to be a writer. In his new book Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet the three time United States poet laureate discusses his life, his hometown, his unique family, and the things that made him love words and want to create with them.
Robert Pinsky was born in Long Branch, New Jersey a town with its glory days and better day well in the past. His grandfather was a member or a crime ring, bootlegging as a start, his father loved sports, and his mother was a tomboy. The neighborhood was Italian and African American, later Hispanics and Asians would move into the area. Never a great student, Pinsky was a great reader of books and even more of people. Pinsky had an ear, one that turned the voices and sounds of his multiethnic into rhythms that he would play with in his head, forming them and making them something different but he wasn't quite sure what.
Nostalgic, but not for an America that never really was, but for the people and the times that he grew up in. Along with the stories of his upbringing are plenty of sections on the books that he read, the music he listened to and the poets that he discovered. These bits offer different views of what makes a passage work, or what makes a song stay with you, and are quite informative. Also his discussions on working with sight and hearing impaired poets was something I knew little about, but quite enjoyed reading. The writing is quite good, as one would expect with the feeling that you are rumbling along on a train ride with different stations being the past and the conductor is filling in the gaps of what you are seeing. Long Branch in many ways seems as familiar as the small town I grew up in.
Reading about the life of creative people is always interesting, but sometimes a gamble. What if at the end you find an author, or writer or poet is a lot of jerk. Or dull. There is nothing like that in here. No this is a man who considers his past a gift to his talent, and his talent his making people feel something with words. And that is the best thing to share. For poets, aspiring writers and for people who like to read about people liking books, this is the perfect gift.
Writers are constantly asked where they get their ideas from. A question that I have always wanted to ask was where did the idea that you were a writer come from? What formed the idea in your head that hmm I could do this. Robert Pinsky's answer might be, I was formed to be a writer. In his new book Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet the three time United States poet laureate discusses his life, his hometown, his unique family, and the things that made him love words and want to create with them.
Robert Pinsky was born in Long Branch, New Jersey a town with its glory days and better day well in the past. His grandfather was a member or a crime ring, bootlegging as a start, his father loved sports, and his mother was a tomboy. The neighborhood was Italian and African American, later Hispanics and Asians would move into the area. Never a great student, Pinsky was a great reader of books and even more of people. Pinsky had an ear, one that turned the voices and sounds of his multiethnic into rhythms that he would play with in his head, forming them and making them something different but he wasn't quite sure what.
Nostalgic, but not for an America that never really was, but for the people and the times that he grew up in. Along with the stories of his upbringing are plenty of sections on the books that he read, the music he listened to and the poets that he discovered. These bits offer different views of what makes a passage work, or what makes a song stay with you, and are quite informative. Also his discussions on working with sight and hearing impaired poets was something I knew little about, but quite enjoyed reading. The writing is quite good, as one would expect with the feeling that you are rumbling along on a train ride with different stations being the past and the conductor is filling in the gaps of what you are seeing. Long Branch in many ways seems as familiar as the small town I grew up in.
Reading about the life of creative people is always interesting, but sometimes a gamble. What if at the end you find an author, or writer or poet is a lot of jerk. Or dull. There is nothing like that in here. No this is a man who considers his past a gift to his talent, and his talent his making people feel something with words. And that is the best thing to share. For poets, aspiring writers and for people who like to read about people liking books, this is the perfect gift.
June 28, 2022
I received an ARC from the publisher.
I have to admit that I'm fairly certain I'd never read a Robert Pinsky poem before reading this book. So wny did I choose read a Robert Pinsky memoir? First, I enjoy poetry, though I'm by no means well-versed on the subject. More importantly, I'm a Jersey boy, it's summer, and the thought of going back down the shore with a poet as my guide, seeing it through his eyes (and ear), appealed to me. Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that my favorite sections of Jersey Breaks were about Pinsky's youth in Jersey and the histories of the family members who surrounded him as he grew up. He grew up in a different time and a different part of NJ than I did, and yet it felt so familiar and so much like home.
This is not to say I didn't enjoy Pinsky writing about poetry. His writing is clear and precise, humorous and intelligent, free of the snobbery and elitism of most academic writing about poetry.(His lack of pretension is best illustrated in my favorite part of the book: his inclusion of a wonderful schoolyard poem about Hitler's undescended testicle, sung to the tune of the "Colonel Bogey March." It's delightful, though I should mention he writes equally well about Dante's Inferno.) My main issue with Jersey Breaks is it seems to run out of steam, or perhaps go rudderless, once it leaves New Jersey. Oh well. In any case, I will seek out more of Pinsky's poems now that I've read bits and pieces of them in this memoir, and I did get a lovely summer vacation back down the shore, if only in my mind.
I have to admit that I'm fairly certain I'd never read a Robert Pinsky poem before reading this book. So wny did I choose read a Robert Pinsky memoir? First, I enjoy poetry, though I'm by no means well-versed on the subject. More importantly, I'm a Jersey boy, it's summer, and the thought of going back down the shore with a poet as my guide, seeing it through his eyes (and ear), appealed to me. Knowing this, it should come as no surprise that my favorite sections of Jersey Breaks were about Pinsky's youth in Jersey and the histories of the family members who surrounded him as he grew up. He grew up in a different time and a different part of NJ than I did, and yet it felt so familiar and so much like home.
This is not to say I didn't enjoy Pinsky writing about poetry. His writing is clear and precise, humorous and intelligent, free of the snobbery and elitism of most academic writing about poetry.(His lack of pretension is best illustrated in my favorite part of the book: his inclusion of a wonderful schoolyard poem about Hitler's undescended testicle, sung to the tune of the "Colonel Bogey March." It's delightful, though I should mention he writes equally well about Dante's Inferno.) My main issue with Jersey Breaks is it seems to run out of steam, or perhaps go rudderless, once it leaves New Jersey. Oh well. In any case, I will seek out more of Pinsky's poems now that I've read bits and pieces of them in this memoir, and I did get a lovely summer vacation back down the shore, if only in my mind.
September 6, 2023
My father grew up on Sixth Ave. in Long Branch in the 20s, 30s and 40s. I visited my Grandpa and Grandma all the time, as we lived nearby. Pinsky may have known my family. I have asked him on Twitter, but received no answer as some poets are so awfully busy. ;-)
I know many of the references of Long Branch from me being there, and my father talking nostalgically about them all the time. The junkman, the football coach, the policeman. the butcher and the synagogue where my family went. I still often pass by my old grandpa's house and look.. although sadly it has been sold several times, and last time it was in arrears. and looking sad with a backyard totally encased in gravel where once there was a stunning tomato garden and old antique roses and a grapevine.
Enjoyed all that about the book, although towards the end, it became a bit pedantic with explanations of poetry way beyond my college education. Confusing. The pages then drifted to a lot about himself-- without the backdrop of what the publisher calls "a run down town". Long Branch will forever be my personal garden... grape vineyard, amusement boardwalk and the front porch of that house on 6th Ave. I even know Rockwell Ave where the Pinsky family, and my family rented. I wish there was more of Long Branch in the book. But, I know poets have to POET. But still, I Enjoyed all the small mentions of the town characters, because that is in my poetic heart.
I know many of the references of Long Branch from me being there, and my father talking nostalgically about them all the time. The junkman, the football coach, the policeman. the butcher and the synagogue where my family went. I still often pass by my old grandpa's house and look.. although sadly it has been sold several times, and last time it was in arrears. and looking sad with a backyard totally encased in gravel where once there was a stunning tomato garden and old antique roses and a grapevine.
Enjoyed all that about the book, although towards the end, it became a bit pedantic with explanations of poetry way beyond my college education. Confusing. The pages then drifted to a lot about himself-- without the backdrop of what the publisher calls "a run down town". Long Branch will forever be my personal garden... grape vineyard, amusement boardwalk and the front porch of that house on 6th Ave. I even know Rockwell Ave where the Pinsky family, and my family rented. I wish there was more of Long Branch in the book. But, I know poets have to POET. But still, I Enjoyed all the small mentions of the town characters, because that is in my poetic heart.
March 12, 2023
How does a kid from a shore town in New Jersey become a poet, and then live as a poet?
It sounds improbable. It is improbable. But Robert Pinsky did just that, and this memoir highlights some of the steps along the way. Perhaps the key was his early fascination with the sounds and rhythms of words, and (equally important) the fact that he never lost it. He writes (and this just might be the key to the book):
"Like singing and dancing and playing sports, poetry is something nearly everybody enjoys when they are small. Somehow, we learn to fear or dislike such things. You have to be taught that you can't dance, for example, and until then you can. Same with poetry."
Perfect. For those of us who (often early in our education) who are taught to fear or dislike poetry (and I count myself among those), the door remains open, as Pinsky reminds us. Whether that is reading poetry, or memorizing poetry, or even writing, or attempting to write, poetry affords vast rewards, no matter one’s age or circumstances in life (as his leadership of the Favorite Poems Project proves).
Some great bits:
The bootlegger grandfather (vaguely associated with the mob), a non-observant Jew who takes his son (the author’s father) to say Kaddish after his wife dies.
During the process of creating the early computer game, “Mindwheel,” a staffer on the tech side says, “I’ve got to read this Dante’s Inferno—everybody keeps comparing it to Mindwheel.”
Pinky’s rumination on the evanescence of fame. Teaching a class, he finds that most of his students have no idea of who Groucho Marx was, and not one had ever seen a clip from a Marx Brothers movie.
The author’s appreciation of, “. . . an elegant, embracing weirdness in American culture.”
This quote: “The book of Isaiah is a great poem of the void between practice and spirit. Maybe, dimly I sensed that.”
Over the last eight to ten months, I have found myself drawn to poetry in ways that I had not been, in ways that I could not have imagined possible, at any time since my adolescence. Whole new worlds are there to be explored. Pinsky’s book is one guide to why they should be.
It sounds improbable. It is improbable. But Robert Pinsky did just that, and this memoir highlights some of the steps along the way. Perhaps the key was his early fascination with the sounds and rhythms of words, and (equally important) the fact that he never lost it. He writes (and this just might be the key to the book):
"Like singing and dancing and playing sports, poetry is something nearly everybody enjoys when they are small. Somehow, we learn to fear or dislike such things. You have to be taught that you can't dance, for example, and until then you can. Same with poetry."
Perfect. For those of us who (often early in our education) who are taught to fear or dislike poetry (and I count myself among those), the door remains open, as Pinsky reminds us. Whether that is reading poetry, or memorizing poetry, or even writing, or attempting to write, poetry affords vast rewards, no matter one’s age or circumstances in life (as his leadership of the Favorite Poems Project proves).
Some great bits:
The bootlegger grandfather (vaguely associated with the mob), a non-observant Jew who takes his son (the author’s father) to say Kaddish after his wife dies.
During the process of creating the early computer game, “Mindwheel,” a staffer on the tech side says, “I’ve got to read this Dante’s Inferno—everybody keeps comparing it to Mindwheel.”
Pinky’s rumination on the evanescence of fame. Teaching a class, he finds that most of his students have no idea of who Groucho Marx was, and not one had ever seen a clip from a Marx Brothers movie.
The author’s appreciation of, “. . . an elegant, embracing weirdness in American culture.”
This quote: “The book of Isaiah is a great poem of the void between practice and spirit. Maybe, dimly I sensed that.”
Over the last eight to ten months, I have found myself drawn to poetry in ways that I had not been, in ways that I could not have imagined possible, at any time since my adolescence. Whole new worlds are there to be explored. Pinsky’s book is one guide to why they should be.
August 13, 2025
I saw Robert Pinsky's memoir in a bookstore on OBX and bought it immediately. I grew up in the town next door to Pinsky's Long Branch and I also went to Rutgers. But I had no idea that a Jew from the Italian section of Long Branch became the Poet Laureate of the US. Shame on me. Pinsky's account is warm and accessible, funny and poignant. But what I loved most about the book was what he said in his chapter on the "Favorite Poem Project." This initiative was meant to explore the amount of poetry that ordinary people carry in their hearts and minds. It was done pre-internet, by surveying people in all walks of life and hearing them quote poems they knew by memory - mostly. What he says about the program is what should be true of so many of the best things in American culture:
"Personal and civic, The Favorite Poem Project is based on a sense of poetry as older and more primary than prose and closely related to music in a place distinct from both show business and academia: an American public space for the art of poetry and for the voice of its audience." That is beautiful -- distinct from both show business and academia. How we need that in so many areas, public health, religion, jurisprudence and poetry to name a few. Pinsky lived in the world of scholars and professional poets but he never lost his sense of being a poor immigrant kid in Long Branch NJ.
"Personal and civic, The Favorite Poem Project is based on a sense of poetry as older and more primary than prose and closely related to music in a place distinct from both show business and academia: an American public space for the art of poetry and for the voice of its audience." That is beautiful -- distinct from both show business and academia. How we need that in so many areas, public health, religion, jurisprudence and poetry to name a few. Pinsky lived in the world of scholars and professional poets but he never lost his sense of being a poor immigrant kid in Long Branch NJ.
November 4, 2022
Given his title, subtitle and prologue, it’s pretty clear that Robert Pinsky meant his JERSEY BREAKS: BECOMING AN AMERICAN POET to cohere, but it doesn't. For this reader it seemed like a collection of articles more or less arbitrarily assembled as a book.
Not that the book is without its charms, as when he describes his fastidious mother who “washed his white shoelaces.”
Highlight: In the chapter called And Another Thing, Pinsky recounts being on a hike with his wife, reciting a poem by William Butler Yeats, and being unable to remember the word “meddling” in Yeats’ fourth line. They try various other words that obviously aren’t right. After the hike, Pinsky goes to a bookstore, finds a volume containing the poem, and is astonished by the rightness of “meddling.” Here’s the poem:
ON BEING ASKED FOR A WAR POEM
I think it better that in times like these
A poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth
Or an old man upon a winter’s night.
Pinsky was arguably the most active and noticeable poet laureate the United States has had. The book includes a chapter about his Favorite Poem Project.
Not that the book is without its charms, as when he describes his fastidious mother who “washed his white shoelaces.”
Highlight: In the chapter called And Another Thing, Pinsky recounts being on a hike with his wife, reciting a poem by William Butler Yeats, and being unable to remember the word “meddling” in Yeats’ fourth line. They try various other words that obviously aren’t right. After the hike, Pinsky goes to a bookstore, finds a volume containing the poem, and is astonished by the rightness of “meddling.” Here’s the poem:
ON BEING ASKED FOR A WAR POEM
I think it better that in times like these
A poet’s mouth be silent, for in truth
We have no gift to set a statesman right;
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of her youth
Or an old man upon a winter’s night.
Pinsky was arguably the most active and noticeable poet laureate the United States has had. The book includes a chapter about his Favorite Poem Project.
March 20, 2023
Jersey Breaks: Becoming an American Poet
Robert Pinsky’s books about the analysis of poetry have taught me so much that I was drawn to his autobiography. It did not disappoint. Although I cannot pretend to have understood all of his discussions of poems, I did find his stories of his experiences engaging. Even as a young child, he was fascinated by the spoken word and came up with discerning analyses of the sounds of human speech.
Three stories were especially interesting to me: his accounts of choosing poems for a speech to be given four days after 9/11; of attending a gathering of poets from around the world in North Korea, and event that did not go at all as planned; and his account of the project, Americans’ Favorite Poems.
Pinsky seems engaging and approachable. We were fortunate that he served three terms as our nation's poet laureate.
Robert Pinsky’s books about the analysis of poetry have taught me so much that I was drawn to his autobiography. It did not disappoint. Although I cannot pretend to have understood all of his discussions of poems, I did find his stories of his experiences engaging. Even as a young child, he was fascinated by the spoken word and came up with discerning analyses of the sounds of human speech.
Three stories were especially interesting to me: his accounts of choosing poems for a speech to be given four days after 9/11; of attending a gathering of poets from around the world in North Korea, and event that did not go at all as planned; and his account of the project, Americans’ Favorite Poems.
Pinsky seems engaging and approachable. We were fortunate that he served three terms as our nation's poet laureate.
August 3, 2023
"I reached for a contrast between that 'enormity'—in both senses of the word, outrageous horror as well as massive quantities—and poetry, with its inherently human scale, embodied in the quality of a voice."
Pinsky is something of a Forrest Gump in the world of poetry: he encounters Robert Lowell, Bill Clinton, Rita Dove, Lisa Simpson, etc. He visits North Korea, discusses the murderer of Breonna Taylor, serves three terms as Poet Laureate of the United States, and can tell identify every Jewish actor in Hollywood no matter their assumed surname.
This is by and large an intensely engaging book and only a few times does Pinsky indulge in abstract wandering for a few paragraphs.
I'm not sure what else to say. I'm not as articulate as I used to be.
Pinsky is something of a Forrest Gump in the world of poetry: he encounters Robert Lowell, Bill Clinton, Rita Dove, Lisa Simpson, etc. He visits North Korea, discusses the murderer of Breonna Taylor, serves three terms as Poet Laureate of the United States, and can tell identify every Jewish actor in Hollywood no matter their assumed surname.
This is by and large an intensely engaging book and only a few times does Pinsky indulge in abstract wandering for a few paragraphs.
I'm not sure what else to say. I'm not as articulate as I used to be.
March 5, 2023
This book was beautiful. Pinsky reads prose with a lyrical beauty usually saved for poetry. He provides the reader with a background into his family —his bootlegger grandfather, his father with a poet’s view of a gentleman, and his mother who experienced times of laughter and times of darkness. Throughout the memoir, Pinsky gives homage to the great poets who came before and alongside him. This book made me want to fall in love with poetry as he is. It made me want to read everything he has ever written. It was just wonderful, and the author reading the book gave it another layer of greatness.
I was given an ARC from NetGalley.
I was given an ARC from NetGalley.
January 1, 2024
Honestly, my rating shouldn’t count in that, embarrassed as I am to say it, I know absolutely nothing about poetry. Instead, I chose this book to pick something outside the box, and as someone from Jersey, I was more interested in his description of and experiences is in Long Branch and such. This book is beautifully written and if I had any familiarity with poetry whatsoever, I’d likely give this a 4 or a 5 (hence why my rating shouldn’t count). As someone who is also a writer — just not of poetry — I did also very much enjoy his discussions of the beauty of words and sounds and syllables and how his brain operates to find the right patterns.
February 27, 2023
I was intrigued by Robert Pinsky's "Jersey Breaks" because I'm a Jersey girl and I love the Jersey shore. I listened to the audiobook, which Mr. Pinsky narrates himself. I enjoyed hearing about the familiar towns I grew up around (Long Branch, Monmouth) and how Mr. Pinsky's love of writing developed. Although there were several chapters that felt less of a memoir and more of an English or history lesson, I definitely enjoyed the parts of the story that were more about Robert Pinsky's life and family in New Jersey.
March 19, 2023
In an effort to read some books that fall outside of my normal genres, I landed upon this memoir of Robert Pinsky. I don’t know what I expected from an audiobook narrated by the poet himself, but this audiobook was so lyrical that I often found myself lost in the sound of Pinsky’s voice, having to rewind to fully get what he was sharing. Melding an interesting story, along with a melodic voice made this audiobook an easy listen.
Thanks to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the advanced audiobook!
Thanks to HighBridge Audio and NetGalley for the advanced audiobook!
May 25, 2023
Not normally a big fan of memoirs, I much enjoyed this one by the great American poet Robert Pinsky. He hails from the Jersey Shore, and its flavor runs through the book. Pinsky is right at the peak of American poets, but has always maintained that balance of expert at his craft, balanced by raw Jersey-smart-ass, which makes him a delight to read in either his poetry or prose. This has an advantage of giving the reader an introduction to a number of famed poets of a certain era, and airing their dirty laundry as well.
August 28, 2023
This is easily one of the best memoirs by a poet that I have ever read, and a wonderful look into a great poet's upbringing, influences, and process. Pinsky is a warm and inviting storyteller, and his graces are so well-threaded within his missteps in the telling that you can't help but feel a great love and admiration for him as a human being. His kindness and honesty is always in evidence in these pages, and he looks back over the course of his life from his eighties with a clear eye and love. I wanted this book to go on forever. It left me wistful and inspired.
July 16, 2022
I received an arc from the publisher—and it’s great. Pinsky brings his poetry to this memoir, deftly tying together memories, popular culture, old poetry, new poetry, Zork, and a whole lot more. It’s a thoughtful exploration of who we are, where we come from, and how to wrestle with the faults of all our lives. And it makes me want to read and write more poetry.
July 18, 2023
While I'm not a substantial fan of Pinksy as a poet, I did enjoy his prose. I'm always interested in the journeys writers take to get where they are, and I especially appreciate the awareness of the greater world around him.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
July 17, 2024
Normally, I push through 10% or 50 pages, whichever is more, before I give up... I made it 10 pages in, and it feels so disjointed, none of the stories are more than a paragraph long, and they don't seem to be related. I think I was expecting more from this than I'm going to get. I'm putting it back on the shelf at work...
February 10, 2023
enjoyed the book, somewhere in the middle I felt it less a biography and the poetic nature took over and I was left sifting through meaning. But it was enjoyable and made me reflect about Despair and hope and American culture
March 12, 2023
The parts about poetry—especially sound and Pinsky's love of consonants—are excellent. Pinsky hears poetic rhythms in the station announcements of NJ Transit. As a memoir the book is less successful.
did-not-finish
December 23, 2022Just couldn’t do it. Very rambling. I’m sorry.
March 8, 2023
I enjoyed most of this, there is a lot of history and the authors life. Less poetry then I expected.
Recommended For: Perfect for men over 60 who like history, especially those from New Jersey.
Recommended For: Perfect for men over 60 who like history, especially those from New Jersey.
March 24, 2023
4 stars, RTC!
April 12, 2023
Jewish boy from the Jersey Shore,
Loved a mishmosh, loved words more.
Loved a mishmosh, loved words more.
June 7, 2023
Did not work for me. Disjointed.
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