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Daily Horoscope: Poems
"Daily Horoscope is a stunning first book . . . Gioia is a master of forms. He experiments with old ones, and in a few instances has taken to inventing new ones."--Robert Phillips, Arrival"Page for page, seldom has a first collection offered so many aesthetically, psychologically, and philosophically satisfying poems."--ALA Booklist"In combining the powers of form and narration, Dana Gioia is the poet who most fully realizes the potential of the New Formalist movement."--Robert McPhillips, The Sewanee Review"Daily Horoscope, in the finest sense, represents the perfect synthesis of maker and object made. It would be specious to praise this volume as a first book. Gioia has given us a book that is more accomplished than recent publications by many more celebrated practitioners."--Robert McDowell, The Hudson Review"Here we have a truly exceptional poet. In his mid-thirties, Dana Gioia can be compared to Wallace Stevens and not be routed by the comparison."--Raymond Nelson, Virginia Quarterly Review
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1986
3 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Dana Gioia
171 books118 followersDana Gioia is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning poet. Former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Gioia is a native Californian of Italian and Mexican descent. He received a B.A. and a M.B.A. from Stanford University and an M.A. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. (Gioia is pronounced JOY-uh.)
Gioia has published four full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia's 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture.
Gioia's reviews have appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. Gioia has written two opera libretti and is an active translator of poetry from Latin, Italian, and German.
As Chairman of the NEA, Gioia succeeded in garnering enthusiastic bi-partisan support in the United States Congress for the mission of the Arts Endowment, as well as in strengthening the national consensus in favor of public funding for the arts and arts education. (Business Week Magazine referred to him as "The Man Who Saved the NEA.")
Gioia's creation of a series of NEA National Initiatives combined with a wider distribution of direct grants to reach previously underserved communities making the agency truly national in scope. Through programs such as Shakespeare in American Communities, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, NEA Jazz Masters, American Masterpieces, and Poetry Out Loud, the Arts Endowment has successfully reached millions of Americans in all corners of the country.
The Big Read became the largest literary program in the history of the federal government. By the end of 2008, 400 communities had held month-long celebrations of great literature. Because of these successes as well as the continued artistic excellence of the NEA's core grant programs, the Arts Endowment, under Chairman Gioia, reestablished itself as a preeminent federal agency and a leader in the arts and arts education.
Renominated in November 2006 for a second term and once again unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Dana Gioia is the ninth Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gioia left his position as Chairman on January 22, 2009. In 2011 Gioia became the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California where he teaches each fall semester.
Gioia has been the recipient of ten honorary degrees. He has won numerous awards, including the 2010 Laetare Medal from Notre Dame. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California
Gioia has published four full-length collections of poetry, as well as eight chapbooks. His poetry collection, Interrogations at Noon, won the 2002 American Book Award. An influential critic as well, Gioia's 1991 volume Can Poetry Matter?, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, is credited with helping to revive the role of poetry in American public culture.
Gioia's reviews have appeared in many magazines including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, The New York Times Book Review, Slate, and The Hudson Review. Gioia has written two opera libretti and is an active translator of poetry from Latin, Italian, and German.
As Chairman of the NEA, Gioia succeeded in garnering enthusiastic bi-partisan support in the United States Congress for the mission of the Arts Endowment, as well as in strengthening the national consensus in favor of public funding for the arts and arts education. (Business Week Magazine referred to him as "The Man Who Saved the NEA.")
Gioia's creation of a series of NEA National Initiatives combined with a wider distribution of direct grants to reach previously underserved communities making the agency truly national in scope. Through programs such as Shakespeare in American Communities, Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, NEA Jazz Masters, American Masterpieces, and Poetry Out Loud, the Arts Endowment has successfully reached millions of Americans in all corners of the country.
The Big Read became the largest literary program in the history of the federal government. By the end of 2008, 400 communities had held month-long celebrations of great literature. Because of these successes as well as the continued artistic excellence of the NEA's core grant programs, the Arts Endowment, under Chairman Gioia, reestablished itself as a preeminent federal agency and a leader in the arts and arts education.
Renominated in November 2006 for a second term and once again unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Dana Gioia is the ninth Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Gioia left his position as Chairman on January 22, 2009. In 2011 Gioia became the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California where he teaches each fall semester.
Gioia has been the recipient of ten honorary degrees. He has won numerous awards, including the 2010 Laetare Medal from Notre Dame. He and his wife, Mary, have two sons. He divides his time between Los Angeles and Sonoma County, California
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 20, 2009
This book contains a collection of poems by Dana Gioia. (see http://www.danagioia.net/about/ ) I have not read much 20th century poetry of late, what little I have read has been of the line of T.S. Eliot.
I recently listened to a lecture given by Dr.Gioia (joy-uh), and was convicted that I need to be seeking out good poetry in the here and now. So the first place I started was with a set of poems by Dr. Gioia himself. After hearing him read his own poetry in the lecture (see http://pcpcartsfestival.org/dana-gioi... ), and now reading these poems in this collection, I will seek out more of his poetry and also read some of the recommendations he makes.
These poems are written in traditional forms, and as such are more interesting to me than the blank verse of some modern poetry. The freedom and creativity within the traditional forms is fascinating and exciting. I am encouraged to read more!
My favorite poems include "God Only Knows", "Lives of the Great Composers", and "Beware of Things in Duplicate".
Dr. Gioia is the past president of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). He is the son of an Italian immigrant father and a Mexican mother. Born in California, he is the only one in his family to attend college. He is a committed Christian who writes poetry and loves literature.
An interesting article to read is the commencement address Dr. Gioia made to the 2007 graduating class of Stanford University. In it, he encourages graduates to "Trade easy pleasures for more complex and challenging ones". See the address at
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news...
I recently listened to a lecture given by Dr.Gioia (joy-uh), and was convicted that I need to be seeking out good poetry in the here and now. So the first place I started was with a set of poems by Dr. Gioia himself. After hearing him read his own poetry in the lecture (see http://pcpcartsfestival.org/dana-gioi... ), and now reading these poems in this collection, I will seek out more of his poetry and also read some of the recommendations he makes.
These poems are written in traditional forms, and as such are more interesting to me than the blank verse of some modern poetry. The freedom and creativity within the traditional forms is fascinating and exciting. I am encouraged to read more!
My favorite poems include "God Only Knows", "Lives of the Great Composers", and "Beware of Things in Duplicate".
Dr. Gioia is the past president of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). He is the son of an Italian immigrant father and a Mexican mother. Born in California, he is the only one in his family to attend college. He is a committed Christian who writes poetry and loves literature.
An interesting article to read is the commencement address Dr. Gioia made to the 2007 graduating class of Stanford University. In it, he encourages graduates to "Trade easy pleasures for more complex and challenging ones". See the address at
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news...
August 10, 2023
Gioia's first published collection strums an easily recognizable (though not nearly so elegantly-phrased) chord in me, given that he was my age at the time of the writing. He reflects on the realization that he is no longer a young man, strictly speaking, and that he has crested enough of adulthood's foothills to have a substantial chunk of his conscious life to look back upon and attempt to process. His poems are full of remembrances -- of long-lost friends and places, of once-upon-a-time lovers and wonderings about what-could-have-been -- and each is tinged with the wistful or regretful musings of a man just old enough to realize that those seasons and those people are actually gone for good, that take-backs and repetitions do not actually form the bones of a lived life. And Gioia's counsel for others who have come to similar realizations -- and who wish to make sense of them -- points away from the temptations of acquisition and actualization that accompany the attainment of manhood and towards the practice of a rooted coinherence with this world and the next:
Leave the museums. Find the dark churches
in back towns that history has forgotten,
the unimportant places the powerful ignore
where commerce knows no profit will be made....
Make the long ascent
up to the grey stone chapel on the hillside
when summer is a furnace open to the world,
and pause there breathless in the blinding sun
only one moment, then enter.
Leave the museums. Find the dark churches
in back towns that history has forgotten,
the unimportant places the powerful ignore
where commerce knows no profit will be made....
Make the long ascent
up to the grey stone chapel on the hillside
when summer is a furnace open to the world,
and pause there breathless in the blinding sun
only one moment, then enter.
September 7, 2024
daily horoscope by dana gioia wasn't my cup of tea, but i appreciated the poet's skill and craftsmanship. as a creative writing major, i was impressed by his use of form and language. although i didn't connect with all the themes, there were a few poems that stood out to me, such as...
◦ california hills in august
◦ men after work
◦ in cheever country ★ 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 ★
◦ 1. today will be...
◦ a short history of tobacco
◦ an emigré in autumn
◦ california hills in august
◦ men after work
◦ in cheever country ★ 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘦 ★
◦ 1. today will be...
◦ a short history of tobacco
◦ an emigré in autumn
May 8, 2023
Often off-beat or dimly disturbing, but always compelling.
January 6, 2024
"We lie in silence saying more
than anything we hoped to say.
And yet I wake an hour later,
reach out and find myself alone.
No words spoken, no message left,
the room so quiet, and you gone."
than anything we hoped to say.
And yet I wake an hour later,
reach out and find myself alone.
No words spoken, no message left,
the room so quiet, and you gone."
April 1, 2013
I am not really into poetry and so I am a little surprised that I was persuaded to read this book. It took me awhile to get through it, but I think that is what poetry is meant for. I found myself re-reading several of the poems in this book and enjoying them more the second time.
This is a slim volume, and several of the poems are short. I would say that several of the early poems were easier for me to process, but I also enjoyed finishing the last few poems. Some of the poems resonated with me particularly, while others I didn't get much out of (at least with the first reading). It think that this is a book that I will come back to again and enjoy in a different way in a few years.
This is a slim volume, and several of the poems are short. I would say that several of the early poems were easier for me to process, but I also enjoyed finishing the last few poems. Some of the poems resonated with me particularly, while others I didn't get much out of (at least with the first reading). It think that this is a book that I will come back to again and enjoy in a different way in a few years.
August 19, 2010
Dana Gioia is one of the best living poets. His style is typically formal, serious, and inventive. His poetry is accessible and tautly beautiful. He does not indulge in some of the meaningless (to me) randomness of many of the poets today.
November 9, 2012
Favorite poems in Daily Horoscope: "California Hills in August" and "Sunday Night in Santa Rosa"
December 11, 2014
A book to savor and reread.
January 8, 2015
I love it that he has a sense of humor, likes the traditional forms, and writes about big life in such an intimate way. The only thing better than reading his poetry is hearing him recite it.
January 14, 2017
Lovely poems, tackling issues of faith, love, and sex.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews