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Grooks #2
Grooks 2
Book with Interesting little poems, and lovely illustrations. A Grook is a short poem built around a bit of wry wisdom or truth, usually involving some word play, always a rhyme scheme of some sort, and generally meant to provoke thought or emotion. Piet Hien was a Danish scientist, architect, poet, and cultural icon. He first began to publish poetry as part of the Danish Resistance during World War II and wrote thousands of them in both Danish and English.
- GenresPoetry
61 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
2 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Piet Hein
65 books59 followers Danish mathematician, inventor, designer, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym "Kumbel" meaning "tombstone". He has been called an universalist. In that way a spiritual affinity existed between him and the Renaissance ideal - a modern variant of Leonardo da Vinci. However, contrary to the historical ideals, in Piet Hein's works is found an easily recognizable element whether it is a matter of scientific publications, essays, poetry or architecture. The special Piet Hein touch is the supe-riority of the form in relation to the objectives, the medium and - for that matter - the contents.
http://www.piethein.com/piet_hein-en....
http://www.piethein.com/piet_hein-en....
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 24, 2024
What a pleasant surprise, stumbled on Piet Hein (yes, a distant relative of the 17th Dutch admiral and privateer for the Dutch Republic) via a quote by Richard Dawkins in his River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life;
"“Nature, it seems, is the popular name
for milliards and milliards and milliards
of particles playing their infinite game
of billiards and billiards and billiards.”
From this volume;
Memento Vivere
Love while you’ve got
Love to give.
Live while you’ve got
Life to live.
Timing toast
Grook on how to char for yourself
There’s an art of knowing when.
Never try to guess.
Toast until it smokes and then
twenty seconds less.
"“Nature, it seems, is the popular name
for milliards and milliards and milliards
of particles playing their infinite game
of billiards and billiards and billiards.”
From this volume;
Memento Vivere
Love while you’ve got
Love to give.
Live while you’ve got
Life to live.
Timing toast
Grook on how to char for yourself
There’s an art of knowing when.
Never try to guess.
Toast until it smokes and then
twenty seconds less.
July 27, 2021
The perfect palate cleanser after an especially tough or draining read.
Piet Hein was ahead of his time.
Quick, silly, powerful, entertaining, enlightening. Adjectives abound. I could read this book an infinite amount of times and still derive some undeniable pleasure out of it.
Piet Hein was ahead of his time.
Quick, silly, powerful, entertaining, enlightening. Adjectives abound. I could read this book an infinite amount of times and still derive some undeniable pleasure out of it.
January 16, 2014
Pretty little poems. Philosophical. Go well with coffee, silence and quite some thinking.
January 26, 2026
Dedicated to Charles Chaplin, in this second compilation I found more grooks that I liked than in the first one. In total there were more than seven thousands grooks written by Hein during his lifetime and of course, as the preface of the first book mentions, not all of them are ace of spaces. But many provoke smiles, reflections and beauty.
I’m curious about how they sound in their original language. For sure a lot is lost in the translation as it usually happens with poetry. I only found these two books in English and none in my native language, Spanish. Perhaps I should try to translate them? Maybe with the help of ChatGPT or other AI tools I dare to at least experiment with some of them.
In summary, this and the first compilation are very easy to read (less than an hour both) and provide an unique perspective on everyday things that is always refreshing.
My favorite ones of this book.
“(...) You’ll always be late / for the previous train, / and always in time / for the next.”
“(...) Toast until it smokes and then / twenty second less.”
“We shall have to evolve / problem-solvers galore / since each problem they solve / creates ten problems more.”
“Small people often overrate / the charm of being tall, / which is, that you appreciate / the charm of being small.”
“(...) Because the writers / who can’t write / are read by readers / who can’t read.”
(I read More Grooks and I guess it is this book because it had no ISBN number)
I’m curious about how they sound in their original language. For sure a lot is lost in the translation as it usually happens with poetry. I only found these two books in English and none in my native language, Spanish. Perhaps I should try to translate them? Maybe with the help of ChatGPT or other AI tools I dare to at least experiment with some of them.
In summary, this and the first compilation are very easy to read (less than an hour both) and provide an unique perspective on everyday things that is always refreshing.
My favorite ones of this book.
“(...) You’ll always be late / for the previous train, / and always in time / for the next.”
“(...) Toast until it smokes and then / twenty second less.”
“We shall have to evolve / problem-solvers galore / since each problem they solve / creates ten problems more.”
“Small people often overrate / the charm of being tall, / which is, that you appreciate / the charm of being small.”
“(...) Because the writers / who can’t write / are read by readers / who can’t read.”
(I read More Grooks and I guess it is this book because it had no ISBN number)
January 4, 2020
Like Ashley Brilliant's pot shots, these little poems have lost most of their charm for me now. I'd still recommend them to my nieces and nephews.
The best:
and
The worst:
The best:
"...a bit too little is just enough."
and
"...We don't discover what we can't achieve
until we make an effort not to try."
The worst:
"Who am I to deny that God is me?
January 6, 2018
Not as good as the first volume, but captures enough of the charm to still merit the 5/5
February 11, 2020
A present from Lily, a housemate in first year university.
Read
August 2, 2020These Grooks books are so dumb. I love them.
Read
September 20, 2025Found this read on my shelf - I used to read them with my grandma so very sentimental. I don’t rate due to the genre.
October 25, 2017
Piet Hien, by way of miniature biography (and while I wish there was more bio attached to the text than the back cover blurb, you can get a lot more detail on Wikipedia to start with), was a Danish scientist, architect, poet, and cultural icon. He first began to publish poetry as part of the Danish Resistance during World War II and wrote thousands of them in both Danish and English.
A Grook is a short poem built around a bit of wry wisdom or truth, usually involving some word play, always a rhyme scheme of some sort, and generally meant to provoke thought or emotion. I also think they’re designed to be read aloud, although that may be my personal bias. Mr. Hein wrote thousands of them in his life, in both Danish and English.
A couple of examples, two my favourites from this book. The first opens the slim volume:
The universe may
be as great as they say.
But it wouldn't be missed
if it didn't exist.
And the second appeals to me particularly when breaking in a new toaster:
There's an art to knowing when.
Never try to guess.
Toast until it smokes and then
Twenty seconds less.
You can sort of start to get the idea of what a grook is from those. Now read them aloud to yourself. There’s a completely different feeling to simply seeing the words on the screen or page. They almost become living words. Trust me and try it.
This is a very quick read—I suspect all of the books in the series (6?) will be—even taking things as slowly as you can, with a total of 53 grooks in the book. I read the this one in quick bursts of five or eight poems at a time across three days. And grooks themselves are short. But poetry is meant to be quick, sometimes, and I think it’s also usually meant to be read aloud, something I’m going to experiment with a little more.
The simple illustrations in the book, one for each grook, were also done by Mr. Hein himself and tend to capture the feeling of the poem they're attached to.
Overall rating: 4 stars. While some spoke more to me than others, I don’t think there was a single poem in the book I didn’t like. I’ll be stepping up my quest to find more of Mr. Hein’s work.
Sadly, it’s also out of print, and I it has been think for quite a while, which is a shame. There's a lot of deep thinking in these compact little poems.
A Grook is a short poem built around a bit of wry wisdom or truth, usually involving some word play, always a rhyme scheme of some sort, and generally meant to provoke thought or emotion. I also think they’re designed to be read aloud, although that may be my personal bias. Mr. Hein wrote thousands of them in his life, in both Danish and English.
A couple of examples, two my favourites from this book. The first opens the slim volume:
The universe may
be as great as they say.
But it wouldn't be missed
if it didn't exist.
And the second appeals to me particularly when breaking in a new toaster:
There's an art to knowing when.
Never try to guess.
Toast until it smokes and then
Twenty seconds less.
You can sort of start to get the idea of what a grook is from those. Now read them aloud to yourself. There’s a completely different feeling to simply seeing the words on the screen or page. They almost become living words. Trust me and try it.
This is a very quick read—I suspect all of the books in the series (6?) will be—even taking things as slowly as you can, with a total of 53 grooks in the book. I read the this one in quick bursts of five or eight poems at a time across three days. And grooks themselves are short. But poetry is meant to be quick, sometimes, and I think it’s also usually meant to be read aloud, something I’m going to experiment with a little more.
The simple illustrations in the book, one for each grook, were also done by Mr. Hein himself and tend to capture the feeling of the poem they're attached to.
Overall rating: 4 stars. While some spoke more to me than others, I don’t think there was a single poem in the book I didn’t like. I’ll be stepping up my quest to find more of Mr. Hein’s work.
Sadly, it’s also out of print, and I it has been think for quite a while, which is a shame. There's a lot of deep thinking in these compact little poems.
November 25, 2008
Interesting little poems, and I LOVE the illustrations. Read this with Grooks 1. And now, strangely, I want to re-read Eliot's 'The Wastelands'. Huh.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews