99 Poems: New & Selected

by Dana Gioia

Overview

So much of what we live goes on inside—
The diaries of grief, the tongue-tied aches
Of unacknowledged love are no less real
For having passed unsaid. What we conceal
Is always more than what we dare confide.
Think of the letters that we write our dead.

—from “Unsaid”

Dana Gioia has long been celebrated as a poet of sharp intelligence and brooding emotion with an ingenious command of his craft. 99 Poems: New & Selected gathers for the first time work from across his career, including many remarkable new poems. Gioia has not arranged this selection chronologically but instead has organized it by theme in seven sections: Mystery, Place, Remembrance, Imagination, Stories, Songs, and Love. The result is a book that reveals and renews the pleasures, consolations, and sense of wonder that poetry bestows.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781555977320
Publisher:	Graywolf Press
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dana Gioia is an award-winning poet, essayist, translator, and librettist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as the chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and he currently lectures at the University of Southern California.

Table of Contents

I Mystery

The Burning Ladder 3

Insomnia 4

The Stars Now Rearrange Themselves 5

Nothing Is Lost 6

Do Not Expect 7

Beware of Things in Duplicate 8

All Souls' 9

On Approaching Forty 10

Maze without a Minotaur 11

Words 12

Interrogations at Noon 13

Entrance 14

New Year's 15

The Angel with the Broken Wing 16

Prophecy 18

The Road 20

Prayer at Winter Solstice 21

Monster 22

Homage to Soren Kierkegaard 23

II Place

California Hills in August 27

Cruising with the Beach Boys 28

In Chandler Country 30

In Cheever Country 32

The Garden on the Campagna 35

Most Journeys Come to This 36

Waiting in the Airport 38

Men after Work 39

Rough Country 40

Becoming a Redwood 41

A California Requiem 43

The End of the World 45

Shopping 46

Sea Pebbles: An Elegy 49

Vultures Mating 50

Progress Report 51

III Remembrance

Prayer 55

Night Watch 56

Veterans' Cemetery 58

The Song 59

The Gods of Winter 60

Planting a Sequoia 61

Metamorphosis 62

Pentecost 63

The Litany 64

Unsaid 66

Finding a Box of Family Letters 67

Special Treatments Ward 69

Majority 72

My Handsome Cousin 73

IV Imagination

Elegy for Vladimir de Pachmann 77

Lives of the Great Composers 79

God Only Knows 81

A Curse on Geographers 82

A Short History of Tobacco 83

Guide to the Other Gallery 85

My Confessional Sestina 86

The Silence of the Poets 88

Money 89

The Next Poem 90

Elegy with Surrealist Proverbs as Refrain 92

Autumn Inaugural 94

The Seven Deadly Sins 96

Deal with the Devil 97

Meditation on a Line from Novalis 99

Title Index to My Next Book of Poems 100

V Stories

The Room Upstairs 105

Counting the Children 109

Homecoming 117

Haunted 132

Style 140

VI Songs

The Country Wife 153

Song for the End of Time 154

The Archbishop 155

Nosferatu's Serenade 157

Mad Song 158

Alley Cat Love Song 159

Marketing Department Trio 160

Pity the Beautiful 162

Reunion 163

The Heart of the Matter 164

Cold San Francisco 165

Household Gods 166

Film Noir 167

VII Love

Thanks for Remembering Us 171

The Sunday News 172

Speech from a Novella 173

Speaking of Love 174

Equations of the Light 175

The Voyeur 177

Spider in the Corner 178

Summer Storm 179

The Lost Garden 181

Being Happy 182

The Present 183

The Lunatic, the Lover, and the Poet 184

The Apple Orchard 185

Come Back 186

An Old Story 187

Marriage of Many Years 188

Note on the Texts 192

Index 193

Editorial Reviews

02/15/2016
Gioia (Pity the Beautiful) displays his immense talents for structure and for tackling difficult subject matter in this first new and selected volume of his career. A major figure in the late 20th-century return to formalism, Gioia works largely within tight arrangements of meter, though he usually eschews rhyme, and employs simple metaphors and straightforward narratives to reach an emotional core. In “Planting a Sequoia,” about the death of Gioia’s firstborn infant son, tragedy and heartbreak are expressed in plainspoken terms: “In Sicily a father plants a tree to celebrate his first son’s birth—/ But today we kneel in the cold planting you.” The book is organized by theme—mystery, place, remembrance, imagination, stories, songs, and love—and Gioia’s careful diction and dedication to the line lend gravitas to even the most quotidian subjects. Even where he breaks his adherence to classical forms, as in the humorous “Title Index to My Next Book of Poems,” he follows tight organizational principles. Similarly, the form of the opening poem, “The Burning Ladder,” reflects its subject: the dream ladder of the biblical Jacob. Readers searching for classically styled poetry that is unflinchingly sincere and honest will find what they need in the voice of this master poet. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

99 Poems: New & Selected is one of the most anticipated collections of 2016, and it does not disappoint. . . . The book is both a career retrospective and a companion of sorts to Gioia's 1991 essay and 1992 book, Can Poetry Matter? There, he challenged readers and writers to think critically about the role and the value of the genre. Here, he shows how poems resonate. . . . No matter what the topic—mystery, place remembrance, imagination, stories, songs, love—or the form, these polished pieces are vibrant and inviting.”—The Washington Post

“A force for poetry here . . . and everywhere, Gioia is richly deserving of a life’s look.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“99 Poems: New & Selected serves to reenforce Gioia’s reputation as one of America’s best living poets. Gioia writes in both metered and free verse and has a respect for form that gives his verse a somewhat classic feel. And yet there is also a heartfelt simplicity that keeps his work warm and accessible.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“A gifted poet of rhythm and reason, Gioia’s civic and critical pedigree is impressive. . . . This new and selected collection marks his return to verse.”—The Millions

“The first thing to know about Dana Gioia . . . is the richness and range of his poetry. Thoughtfully embroidered with literary allusions, wit and natural imagery, it’s alternately prayerful and playful, and occasionally Chandler-esque.”—Pasadena Weekly

“In a culture obsessed with quantity and novelty, Gioia stands out for his commitment to quality. . . . Like Bach's music, Gioia's poetry is sublime enough to hold the attention of even the most distractible readers. And once he has their attention, he teaches them to name and care for their places, their neighbors, and their eternal souls.”—Books & Culture

“Virtually [every poem] here resounds, like the work of another elegantly musical poet whose corpus bulks little larger than Gioia's—A. E. Housman.”—Booklist *Starred Review*

“Readers searching for classically styled poetry that is unflinchingly sincere and honest will find what they need in the voice of this master poet.”—Publishers Weekly

“[Gioia] offer[s] intellectual insight coupled with a becoming sincerity. . . . 99 Poems is well worth reading.”—The Weekly Standard

"99 Poems is an important collection by an important poet."—The Claremont Review

"Gioia, in the mechanism of service, has always raised the bar of poetry with his intellectual brand of firepower. . . . [99 Poems] includes the truest personal narrative we've had to date. . . . This book is a marriage of values: writing done exceedingly well; and a heart deeper and stronger than ever. Gioia has earned his stay in poetry's future."—Washington Independent Review of Books

“99 Poems is challenging, engaging, and a pleasure to read. This is poetry that opens to us the full range of the human experience; that takes us out of ourselves, yet leads us to new insights into our own lives; that leaves us more capable of accepting the truth.”—The Christian Review

“Gioia’s poetry reminds us again and again that the world is a mystery where the things of God wait, hidden inside the heart of the world."—Catholic World Report

"These lines are a statement about beautiful poetry written in beautiful poetry, and are also a strong argument for Gioia's place as one of the finest poets of his era. There is something to admire in virtually every poem in this book, and individual readers will find their own favorites that they will remember and return to."—Able Muse

“Gioia’s 99 Poems: New and Selected can serve as a perfect introduction to his poetic work as a whole, attesting to the range and sophistications of his forms and themes. . . . Gioia is a master, rare in this day and age, of the narrative poem.”—Italian Americana

“Dana Gioia [is] a poet set apart from exiguous mainstream formlessness by elastic ease in all the forms.”—Cynthia Ozick

"Brought to you by the indefatigable Graywolf Press, 99 Poems features one of the best poems I've read so far this year, 'Pentecost.'"—Brady Kamphenkel, Common Good Books

From the Publisher