Research Catalog

Title

Poems from Ish River country : collected poems and translations / Robert Sund.

Author

Sund, Robert, 1929-2001.

Publication

Washington, D.C. : Shoemaker & Hoard : Distributed by Publishers Group West, [2004], ©2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

257 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"Poems from Ish River Country collects the complete poems of poet, painter and calligrapher Robert Sund. Mr. Sund's few published volumes of poetry and frequent public readings established his reputation as one of the most distinctive poetic voices of the Pacific Northwest." "Included here are the poet's long out of print and award-winning collections, Bunch Grass, which gave literary voice to the rolling wheat country east of the Cascade Mountains in his native Washington State, and Ish River, which celebrated the misty, riverine landscape of the Puget Sound country. But the greater part of this collection contains poems unpublished during the poet's lifetime or published only in very limited editions. There is also a generous selection of his translations, from Issa, Buson, Basho, and most especially from the Swedish poet Rabbe Enckell, with whom Mr. Sund felt a close affinity."--BOOK JACKET.

Contents

In wheat country -- Dark leaves lift in light wind -- Women who marry into wheat -- In a landscape that desperately needs color -- I sit on a rickety bench just outside -- Looking out through the wide elevator doors -- Today, instead of sleeping through the noon hour -- Star thistle, Jim Hill mustard, white tops -- A dusty black beetle -- Looking absurd as a near-sighted scholar -- Harvest at its peak -- At the top of the elevator -- A bee thumps against the dusty window -- First there is silence -- The rolling hills of wheat expect nothing -- At five-thirty in the afternoon -- After each truck fine dust settles on the floor -- America is a strange man -- There's a beetle walking on the ground below me -- Beneath an intensely hot sun -- Between incoming trucks -- With a sandwich -- Just outside the elevator -- It's surprising how many -- Late afternoon, there's a restlessness in the air -- From the southwest -- Cursing -- A dirt-crusted green jeep turns off the highway -- Seven o'clock -- Through a wide field of stubble -- Now as the sun sets, cricket songs -- There is no wind -- Two white -- Five magpies -- A wheat rancher drives up -- Each day fewer fields remain -- The ranchers are selling their wheat early this year -- A fieldmouse -- Afternoon -- At one of the ranches there's a hand -- What day is it now? -- Blooming -- In Walla Walla, cool streams -- Near me -- Late tonight -- Next week I go -- Dry, bleached kernels of wheat and barley -- Heavy rain now, darker skies -- We've come to town -- At quitting time -- The fields are wider -- With the sun low -- Sharp lines -- Going home -- Night along the Columbia, day in Blewett Pass, going home -- Two poems from Swede Hill -- Just before sleep, I dream of my grandfather returned to his farm in the early spring -- My father -- For my brother, Don, at Porter Creek, in late February -- On Christmas Eve in the hospital, my mother finds she has an enlarged heart -- There is no exile where the heart is pure -- Steelhead -- Answering, for my brother -- Considering poverty and homelessness -- In praise of my ink bottle -- Centuries go by -- Seattle in April, cloudy day and high wind -- "Storm sinks Greek ship, 281 perish" -- East of the mountains, driving to White Swan -- Monday morning in Everett, Washington -- Americans thinking of religion -- Grey afternoon in Seattle during the Viet Nam War -- Two poems against the logging companies -- Mean dog on country road -- Spring in Ish River -- Lament for the ancient holy cities -- It seemed summer when everything bloomed in Santa Barbara -- In the woods above Issaquah -- Sitting alone at night, thinking of old promises -- On this side of the mountains -- Pyrrha and Deucalion -- Your angels go with me too -- The widow -- Two seasons -- Spring poem in the Skagit Valley -- Dawn -- On the way in -- Out at Shi Shi -- Salmon moon -- Fishermen in Neah Bay -- Rain poem -- A thousand windows -- In America -- Poem for the naming of the clearing above Shi Shi "never-look-back" -- Bear poem -- Running into the sea -- Friends -- Shi Shi -- Sunset -- Autumn equinox -- Why I am singing for the dancer (1978) -- How the dancer is carried into the hall of light (1982) -- This flower (1982) -- Home : a prayer for the world where you found it (1991) -- Spring -- Summer -- The poet -- Boxcar -- Winter -- Joys of the fluteplayer -- Matchsticks -- Issa -- Buson -- Basho -- And friends -- As though the word blue had been dropped into the water -- Set it down, carefully -- Homage to Ryokan -- Singer in the shadows -- House of many ancestors -- A dream floods the landscape -- Like a boat drifting -- Ink bottle -- Early March in town -- Laura's birthday -- Enough -- Summer solstice -- The frog I saved from a snake -- Shack work -- Thanks to Tony Morefield -- Ten by twelve -- Lettuce box -- Eowyn -- Herons and swallows -- The big rain of August 1976 -- Woodpile down to nothing -- Two poems for the good given -- April has turned cold -- Looking for friends in history -- Some dust -- Shack medicine -- Taos mountain -- Birds at dawn -- The table I keep -- A blanket -- False life -- The ancient peoples -- When the wool blankets were woven -- Rio Pueblo -- Pueblo songs -- To one far back in time -- Five oranges -- Poem -- Mid-September at the boomshack in town -- Poem to the parrot from Africa -- Seven thoughts under the plum tree -- Two poems from Disappearing Lake -- Frog and me, election eve, 1980 -- For friends stepping into marriage -- The rest of the way -- Beetle -- Sun shining through a cabbage leaf -- Lemon cucumbers -- Afternoon light -- Afterword / Tim McNulty.

ISBN

1593760426

LCCN

2004011914

OCLC

• ocm55286058
• SCSB-5111308

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries