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Vividly realized, emotionally gripping, these poems of Chase Twichell's confront the crucial issue of our times: the death of nature as we have known it. The Adirondacks, with their beauties and dangers, are the setting for many of the poems. They are inhabited by the fox, the bear, the fishercat. One is rabid, another dead, the third a life-sustaining dream. The "ghost" is both the shadow of the paradise we have so carelessly ruined, and the poet herself, from whom the elegy for it is wrenched. These are dark poems, frontal and unflinching, but they are illuminated by the poet's powerful love for the earth, and by the heightened, surprising joys forced from a new intimacy with her own mortality. ... Read more

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Angry Nature
Chase Twichell writes poetry beautifully. She has a wonderful sense of rhythm and form. Her poems flow and take the reader along. She is a splendid observer of nature and this shows in her work. She occasionally gets you into the poem and then smacks you in the face with unexpected violence. As an observer and commentator on nature she is comparable to Mary Oliver. But, where Oliver celebrates the beauty and meaning of nature, Ms. Twichell laments it's distruction and loss. Both are probably necessary but the results are quite different. If you are in the mood to be uplifted read Oliver. But if you want ammunition and encouragement in a fight to save the nature we have left, by all means read this book. ... Read more

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"Words in all languages yearn towards the stars"


Including a lifetime of beloved pets, the poet has assembled a brilliant patchwork of images, a volume of poetry to fill an insatiable desire for the unusual connection s of language spun to enchant and distract, to stimulate, memories tossed aside as insubstantial until addressed by such a provocateur.

The painful lessons of childhood are indelible, caught in the careless act of a father and the sadness of a mother:

"She'd be shut up in their bedroom,
mid-afternoon, hardly any sound,
but the breath said it was weeping.
Did I already have my own
Sadness apart from hers?

I think so, but she didn't want
To touch sorrows with me."
(Topiary Rooster)

Independent, inherently curious, the child learns early the importance of critical observation and self-awareness:

"I wanted to be none of them,
especially not Mary,
who had to give birth
having never known love."
(Crèche)

And it is that very self-searching that is so poignant in this book, the quick barbs not meant to wound, but to awaken:

"The dress rehearsal is not going well.
The actor playing Grief
is quite drunk and refuses
to follow the script.

It's Guilt's part she wants."
(Dress Rehearsal)

Moving from childhood to the death of a parent, this work is both intimate and persuasive, a tentative foray into a woman's experience in the world, love of language a tool for exploration, unburdened by ego or pretense, simply sharing impressions, a brilliant journey. Luan Gaines/ 2007.
... Read more

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The Snow Watcher is a sequence of poems that asks a single obsession question: what is the self? The book is a radical re-envisioning of what makes us human rather than animal, human rather than insentient. The poems delve into parts of childhood more comfortably forgotten, and into the ancient stillness of the monastery (Twichell is a student of Zen Buddhism). In both realms the known self dissolves, or is intentionally dismantled, and what is left is something impossible to name, though its startling voice can be heard in the austere, near-empty rooms of these poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Probing and Playful
Spare but haunting poems reflective of Buddhist practice and an alert, probing mind. Some of the poems are subtly disturbing, hinting of dark times in the author's past, but others are hopeful and insightful. Twichell manages to convey a poetic persona that is both probing and playful.Overall, a crisp and bracing read.

Steal this Book
Actually,that's what happened to my copy.I was going through an ugly divorce. I am a Buddhist. A friend suggested reading this book through the Hard Time. I took it to a pub, had a beer or two too many, left without the book. Realised it was left two minutes later, went back, Too late! Gone. Ifigure whoever nabbed it was also in need of the clarity, the crystallimning, the in-your-face reality. The best book of poetry I've read in adecade. I think I'll order another copy.

Lyrical and thoughtful synthesis of buddhism and americanism
I love the forthrightness of these poems.Chase Twichell's THE SNOW WATCHER is a book of some of the most convincing American zen poems I've ever seen.They are American in the sense that they are constantlysubverting themselves, constantly questioning themselves, but at the sametime they are beautiful and evocative and searching moments of clarity. There is a steady quietude that manages to peel back the layers of both thenatural world and the self in a way that is both fresh and deeplyhistorical. ... Read more

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From venues of incarceration and rehabilitation comepoems that celebrate life, and poems that give testimony ofself-destruction. ... Read more

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W.B. Yeats said, that in the end poetry had only two subjects - sex and death. This volume from the American poet Chase Twichell underwrites the Yeatsian prescription, at once subtly and directly. The poems move with ease, between land and sea, present and past, imagination and reality. ... Read more

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For the first time in English, here is the sequence of poems Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861?1941) worked on his entire life?the erotic and emotionally powerful dialogue about Lord Krishna and his young lover Radha.

These "song offerings" are the first poems Tagore ever published, though he passed them off as those of an unknown Bengali religious poet. As the first and last poems Tagore wrote and revised, they represent the entrance and exit to one of the most prolific literary lives of our contemporary world.

These English versions are the result of a five-year collaboration between a Bengali scholar, who provided richly associative literal translations, and the celebrated poet Chase Twichell, who shaped the poems into English.

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Stories and Poems. Contributors include: A. Artidor, Margaret Atwood, Madison Smartt Bell, James Bland, Hayden Carruth, Robert Creeley, Fielding Dawson, Deborah Digges, Stephen Dobyns, Jessica Hagedorn, Lola Haskins, Garrett Hongo, Fanny Howe, Mark Jarman, Laura Kasischke, Martin Lammon, Dana Levin, Adrian C. Louis, Clarence Major, Cleopatra Mathis, William Matthews, Campbell McGrath, Paul Muldoon, Joyce Carol Oates, Ed Ochester, Sharon Olds, Stanley Plumly, Thomas Rabbitt, Jan Richman, Leon Rooke, Kenneth Rosen, Natasha Saje, Reg Saner, Tim Seibles, Jan Selving, Laurie Sheck, Susan Snively, Dannyka Taylor, Melanie Rae Thon, Bruce Weigl, Marianne Wiggins, Dean Young ... Read more

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Ice Cream
I bought the book for maybe one dollar at a used book sale in the North Lake mall. I read it alot and spilled chocolate ice cream on page eleven near the word 'cold'. It is a significant book in the life of my exciting poetry relationship.It is maybe2nd best of these new years. ... Read more

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A distinctive collection of more than 90 effective poetry-writing exercises combined with corresponding essays to inspire writers of all levels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (20)

great
Stated the product as like new, it was exactly that. Sent personal confirmation email within the first 24 hours... got my book extremely fast. Thank You.

I LOVE poetry, so I'll be honest about this book:
Some writers have wonderful exercises that have helped me write and rewrite poetry. Even if you're not a poet, some of these exercises can help you. Like all books, some things will work for you, and other things will not. But overall, I like the way the book is divided. You can go straight to the section you love (or would love) to write about!

THE PRACTICE OF POETRY
Some of the exercises stimulate the muse, while others are a bit brief.
The index at the back should have covered topics and concepts.

Long and involved
These exercises are quite involved.I was hoping for some exercises for writing poetry in the high school classroom.These took quite a bit of time, but resulted in some good poems.

Not bad
Very detailed, a little too structured for my taste. I would however, reccommend it to more disciplined poets or writers. Good to have as a reference tool. ... Read more