Imperfect Thirst

by Galway Kinnell

Galway Kinnell's twelfth book of poems is powerful and thrilling. Imperfect Thirst includes beautiful love poems and approaches elemental subjects with a remarkable balance of good nature and holy recollections of childhood, snapshots of impassive cruelty, reflections on art and nature. This energetic collection will prove once again why Galway Kinnell is one of America's masters of the art.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Kinnell studied at Princeton University, graduating in 1948. He later obtained a Master's degree from the University of Rochester.

As a young man, Kinnell served in the US Navy and traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East. His first volume of poetry, What a Kingdom It Was, was published in 1960.

Kinnell became very involved in the U.S. civil rights movement upon his return, joining CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) as a field worker and participating in a number of marches and other civil actions.

Kinnell was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for Selected Poems (1980), a MacArthur Fellowship, a Rockefeller Grant, the 1974 Shelley Prize of the Poetry Society of America, and the 1975 Medal of Merit from National Institute of Arts and Letters. He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2001 to 2007.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Mostly) quiet poems of memory and loss, spiced with Kinnellisms like:

"It engraves sounds into paper and fills them with pounded nutgall."

and, in the midst of a poem about a cellist:

"... In a back alley a cat opens
its pink-ceilinged mouth, gets netted
in full yowl, clubbed, bagged, bicycled off, haggled open,
gutted, the gut squeezed down to its highest pitch,
washed, then sliced into cello strings that bring
a screaming into this duet of hair and gut."

Neither his strongest nor his weakest collection, but a pleasure to read slowly...

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

The poem, "Neverland," is worth the entire book - absolutely nail-on-the-heart real. Kinnell questions the absolute of death in a way that makes it as understandable as opening a bandaid or making a recipe from a cookbook you have never seen before. Precision with artistry. This book has some so-so poems, but again, "Neverland," written on the death of his sister is a masterpiece.

[meggggg · Rating 4 out of 5]

i didn't love all of the poems, but i loved a few - especially "the hitchhiker", "the man in the chair", "picnic", "the biting insects", "telephoning in mexican sunlight", "the music of poetry", "rapture", and excerpts from "striped snake and the goldfinch".

what interests me about kinnell's work is how sprawling it is - the poems are long, and they move around. a lot of it involves trusting the author or the images he is putting forth/stringing together. there is a tenderness present in many of the pieces, but also, a kind of bitter nostalgia - like, the feeling you get when you press down on a bruise or something.

"the man in the chair" was one i read a few times, in part due to its emotional resonance. i'm curious about masculine figures and their present-absence in this (and other) collection/s.

[Anna Rohleder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sensuous, deeply felt, occasionally magical

[Carrie Hinkel-Gill · Rating 5 out of 5]

He has been an inspiration to me, taught me how to make things "pop". I really need to start carrying this book around with me like I did when I was in college.

[Sean]

Not my favorite of his collections--certainly not the place to start.

Standout poem for me: "Holy Shit"

[j e rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Pain is inherently lonely."

[🌹 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more than I did. I enjoyed a handful of poems, but for the most part, the poetry in this volume just didn’t resonate with me. A lot of his imagery and/or subject matter just wasn’t to my taste. Disappointing! I picked this up because I saw Kinnell recommended by one of my favorite poets (Naomi Shihab Nye), and because I like the quote that the title is taken from. Maybe I’ll give him another shot with a different collection!

[David Ruekberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Knowing death comes, imagining it, smelling it,
May be a fair price for consciousness."

from "Neverland"

My wife bought this for me in 1998 after I heard Kinnell read at Dodge and then NYU. Always one of my gods, I couldn't get into it. It was no Book of Nightmares. I picked it up again last week. Still not Book of Nightmares. It's itself. Maybe its that I'm approaching the age Linnell was when he wrote it. It's more personal (no doubt the influence of Sharon Olds) but still amazingly crafted. Some endings send tingles all through my poetry bone, some not. But overall it left me feeling I had never read another book like it and I am glad for it.

[Keeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Galway Kinnell is a good poet, but not really my style. I'm a lot more interested in poetry that is informed by the classical and European tradition, and shows some influence of formal verse. Kinnell is a bit bleak and American for my taste.

[Carissa]

My favorite poem in this volume is "Rapture." Why wouldn't it be? I have loved it ever since I heard Kinnell read it at our university some years ago.
Recurring themes include mortality and the father. -cg

[Charlotte Pence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used to read Kinnell a lot and started reading this book for a class. Frankly, I forgot how much I admire in his work. Clear, strong, deep poems here that are still risky.

[Mr. Pe Mr. Pe]

this is a great book and i recommend it to everyone

[Sandy Hilliard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really shows the beauty of his poetry.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the opening "Proem" but am not sure what I think about Sheffield Ghazals. What do you think?

[Alana · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfect in every single way. i'm not big on poetry, but kinnell is incredible.

[E H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked "The Pen" and "Holy Shit."

[Mills College Library]

811.54 K558i 1994