Waterborne: Poems – Examining Mortality and Beauty in Distinctive Three-Line Stanzas

by Linda Gregerson

A stirring, brilliantly crafted collection, Linda Gregerson's third volume of poetry examines mortality in all its beauty and horror. Fluently rendered in Gregerson's distinctive three-line stanzas, these poems explore subjects from autism to genealogy to ecology. Their occasions are diverse -- a barn fire, a wounded deer, a child's determined struggle with a bicycle -- but their instinct is always to wrest from the impure world a vernacular of praise.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2002

About the author

Linda Gregerson is an American poet and member of faculty at the University of Michigan. She recieved her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. In 2014, she was named as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Linda Gregerson is the author of several collections of poetry and literary criticism. Also a Renaissance scholar, a classically trained actor, and a devotee of the sciences, she produces lyrical poems informed by her expansive reading that are inquisitive, unflinching, and tender.

Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for Waterborne
Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize finalist for The Woman Who Died in Her Sleep
2000 Guggenheim Fellowship
National Book Award finalist for Manetic North

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

So eloquent, so filled with beauty, Linda Gregerson's poems sometimes tell entire stories that make you feel like you know her intimately. She shares the pivotal moments of her life, such as "Cord," where one is invited to the moments surrounding her father's death, "Waterborne," which recalls significant moments to her concerning water. Her imagery is so delicate, so haunting, and so beautiful. She asks questions concerning faith and Christianity, and she comments on events happening around her - "Plague of Darkness" and "The Horses Run Back to Their Stalls" were horrifying to read; she has produced the horror she must have felt witnessing or hearing about these events into descriptive words. Most all of her poems use a three-line stanza, which keep a steady rhythm going. I have fallen in love with Waterborne and am eager to read more of this poet's work.

[Rhi Marks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more I read this collection the more I like and understand it. Her use of form, the layered tercets, and italic lines in paraenthesis, create interesting dynamics within the meter and narrative. Her poems use science, mythology, or religion to look at society and ourselves. I'm not entirely sure about if Gregerson has a distinct message to send, or it's left open for interpretation. Like I said, the more I read it the more I think I understand it -- or manage to find meaning in it.

[Vanessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've been wanting to get back into reading poetry, so I looked up the recently announced NBA shortlist books at the library. They didn't have any (natch), but at least they had this earlire bok by a finalist. There were two passages in this bookthat intrigued me, but the rest was boring. Maybe I'm out of practice, maybe I need poetry that's less subtle, maybe her shortlisted book is better. But reading this was a waste of time.

[Gary McDowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read some of Gregerson's earlier books... start here?

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like her.

[Dan]

Further measured devastation.