Calling Across Forever

by Sam Hamill

56 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1976

About the author

Poet, editor, translator, and essayist, Sam Hamill is author of more than thirty books including two from BOA Editions, Gratitude (1998), and Dumb Luck(2002). He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including ones from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the U.S.-Japan Friendship Commission, two Washington Governor’s Arts Awards, the Stanley Lindberg Lifetime Achievement Award for Editing, and the Washington Poets Association Lifetime Achievement Award for poetry. He co-founded Copper Canyon Press, and has worked extensively in prisons and with battered women and children.

Reviews

[Mark Valentine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hamill's poetry is jarringly beautiful. His language has tsunami force and his insights streak like the Leonids in August. My favorite line is this, from "Letter to Hedin," "We who have everything have less." The truth in that paradox reverberated with me.

Published by Hamill's own House, Copper Canyon Press, the book itself is wonderful to hold. I got my copy from the Library but I wished I owned it (only 1,500 copies made).

I also enjoyed reading these poems because I know the places that he writes about and I marvel at how his eyes see the same sights.

[Greg Bem · Rating 4 out of 5]

My head responded to a life after Hugo where the conduct of the West is the conducted observation of the West.