{"title":"Gregory Orr","description":"Gregory Orr is the author of ten books of poetry, four collections of criticism, and a memoir that was selected by Publishers Weekly as a \"Best Book of the Year.\" The former poetry editor for the Virginia Quarterly Review, Orr teaches at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville.","products":[{"product_id":"primer-for-poets-paperback","title":"Primer for Poets - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eA Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e guides the young poet toward a deeper understanding of how poetry can function in his or her life, while also introducing the art in an exciting new way. Using such poems as Theodore Roethke's \"My Papa's Waltz\" and Robert Hayden's \"Those Winter Sundays,\" the \u003cem\u003ePrimer\u003c\/em\u003e encourages young writers to approach their \"thresholds\"--those places where disorder meets order, where shaping imagination can turn language into urgent and persuasive poems. It provides the poet with more than a dozen focused writing exercises and explains essential topics such as the personal and cultural threshold; the four forces that animate poetic language (naming, singing, saying, imagining); tactics of revision; ecstasy and engagement as motives for poetry; and how to locate and learn from our personal poetic forebears.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51376116564191,"sku":"9780393253924","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/Sh4kH1m2mE9780393253924.webp?v=1789214232"},{"product_id":"orpheus-eurydice-a-lyric-sequence-paperback","title":"Orpheus \u0026 Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow can I celebrate love\/ now that I know what it does? So begins this booklength lyric sequence which reinhabits and modernizes the story of Orpheus, the mythic master of the lyre (and father of lyric poetry) and Eurydice, his lover who died and whom Orpheus tried to rescue from Hades. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eGregory Orr uses as his touchstone the assertion that myths attempt to narrate a whole human experience, while at the same time serving a purpose which resists explanation. Through poems of passionate and obsessive erotic love, Orr has dramatized the anguished intersection of infinite longings and finite lives and, in the process, explores the very sources of poetry. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhen Eurydice saw him\u003cbr\u003ehuddled in a thick cloak, \u003cbr\u003eshe should have known\u003cbr\u003ehe was alive, \u003cbr\u003ethe way he shivered\u003cbr\u003ebeneath its useless folds. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBut what she saw\u003cbr\u003ewas the usual: a stranger\u003cbr\u003econfused in a new world.\u003cbr\u003eAnd when she touched him\u003cbr\u003eon the shoulder, \u003cbr\u003eit was nothing\u003cbr\u003epersonal, a kindness\u003cbr\u003ehe misunderstood.\u003cbr\u003eTo guide someone\u003cbr\u003ethrough the halls of hell\u003cbr\u003eis not the same as love. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A reader unfamiliar with Orr's work may be surprised, at first, by the richness of both action and visual detail that his succinct, spare poems convey. Lyricism can erupt in the midst of desolation.\"--\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen Gregory Orr's \u003ci\u003eBurning the Empty Nest\u003c\/i\u003e appear, \u003ci\u003ePublisher's Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e praised it as an \"auspicious debut for a gifted newcomer...he already demonstrates a superior control of his medium.\" \u003ci\u003eKirkus Review\u003c\/i\u003e celebrated it as \"an almost unbearably powerful first book of poetry\" and enthusiastically reviewed his second book \u003ci\u003eGathering the Bones Together\u003c\/i\u003e, noting that \"Orr's power is the eloquence of understatement.\" Most recently, his \u003ci\u003eCity of Salt\u003c\/i\u003e was a finalist for the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Award\u003c\/i\u003e. Gregory Orr teaches at the University of Virginia.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378328961247,"sku":"9781556591518","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/d3thzMgrCF9781556591518.webp?v=1789254413"},{"product_id":"the-caged-owl-new-and-selected-poems-paperback","title":"The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGregory Orr's genius is the transformation of trauma into art. Whether writing about his responsibility for a brother's death during a hunting accident, drug addiction, or being jailed during the Civil Rights struggle, lyricism erupts in the midst of desolation and violence. Orr's spare, succinct poems distill myth from the domestic and display a richness of action and visual detail.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis long-awaited collection is soulful work from a remarkable poet, whose poems have been described as \"mystical, carnal, reflective, and wry.\" (\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Review\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Love Poem\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA black biplane crashes through the window\u003cbr\u003e of the luncheonette. The pilot climbs down, \u003cbr\u003e removing his leather hood.\u003cbr\u003e He hands me my grandmother's jade ring.\u003cbr\u003e No, it is two robin's eggs and\u003cbr\u003e a telephone number: yours.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efrom \"Gathering the Bones Together\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA father and his four sons\u003cbr\u003e run down a slope toward\u003cbr\u003e a deer they just killed.\u003cbr\u003e the father and two sons carry\u003cbr\u003e rifles. They laugh, jostle, \u003cbr\u003e and chatter together.\u003cbr\u003e A gun goes off\u003cbr\u003e and the youngest brother\u003cbr\u003e falls to the ground.\u003cbr\u003e A boy with a rifle\u003cbr\u003e stands beside him, \u003cbr\u003e screaming...\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Orr's is an immaculate style of latent violence and inhibited tenderness, charged with a desperate intensity whose source is often obscure.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGregory Orr is the author of seven volumes of poetry and three books of criticism. He is the editor at \u003ci\u003eVirginia Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e, teaches at the University of Virginia, and lives with his wife and daughters in Charlottesville. In 2002, along with his selected poems \u003ci\u003eThe Caged Owl\u003c\/i\u003e, he will also publish a memoir and a book about poetry writing: \u003ci\u003eThree Strange Angels: Trauma and Transformation in Lyric Poetry.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlso Available by Gregory Orr: \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eOrpheus \u0026amp; Eurydice: A Lyric Sequence\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e TP $12.00, 1-55659-151-9 - CUSA\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378333057247,"sku":"9781556591778","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/NrXfK5Nyoa9781556591778.webp?v=1789254424"},{"product_id":"concerning-the-book-that-is-the-body-of-the-beloved-paperback","title":"Concerning the Book That Is the Body of the Beloved - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The heart of Orr's poetry, now as ever, is the enigmatic image . . . mystical, carnal, reflective, wry.\"--\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book-length sequence of ecstatic, visionary lyrics recalls Rumi in its search for the beloved and its passionate belief in the healing qualities of art and beauty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eConcerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved\u003c\/i\u003e is an incantatory celebration of the \"Book,\" an imaginary and self-gathering anthology of all the lyrics--both poems and songs--ever written. Each poem highlights a distinct aspect of the human condition, and together the poems explore love, loss, restoration, the beauty of the world, the beauty of the beloved, and the mystery of poetry. The purpose and power of the Book is to help us live by reconnecting us to the world and to our emotional lives.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eI put the beloved\u003cbr\u003e In a wooden coffin.\u003cbr\u003e The fire ate his body;\u003cbr\u003e The flames devoured her.\u003cbr\u003e I put the beloved\u003cbr\u003e In a poem or song.\u003cbr\u003e Tucked it between\u003cbr\u003e Two pages of the Book.\u003cbr\u003e How bright the flames.\u003cbr\u003e All of me burning, \u003cbr\u003e All of me on fire\u003cbr\u003e And still whole.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere is nothing quite like this book--an \"active anthology\" in the best sense--where individuals find the poems and songs that will sustain them. Or the poems find them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGregory Orr\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of eight books of poetry, four volumes of criticism, and a memoir. He has received numerous awards for his work, most recently the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Orr has taught at the University of Virginia since 1975 and was, for many years, the poetry editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Virginia Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives with his family in Charlottesville, Virginia.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378338431199,"sku":"9781556592294","price":22.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/PocLmQio3A9781556592294.webp?v=1789254437"},{"product_id":"how-beautiful-the-beloved-paperback","title":"How Beautiful the Beloved - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[A] confident, mystical, expansive project.\"--\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[D]azzling and timeless . . . focus is so unwaveringly aimed toward the transcendent--not God, but the beloved--that we seem to slip into a less cluttered time.\"--\u003ci\u003eThe Virginia Quarterly Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \"Editor's Choice\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mary Oliver calls him '...a Walt Whitman without an inch of Whitman's bunting or oratory.' In these pages, he is more nearly a modern-day Rumi. This is not primarily a poetry of image, but of ideas, perfectly distilled. Orr brings together the monumental themes of love and loss in small, spare, and exquisite koan-like poems.\"\u003ci\u003e--ForeWord\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"...magnetic poems that open the world of lyrical verse to the larger questions of what is true and timeless.\"\u003cbr\u003e --\u003ci\u003eThe Bloomsbury Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGregory Orr continues his acclaimed project on the \"beloved\" with a lyrical sequence about the joys and hungers of being fully engaged in life. Through concise, perfectly formed poems, he wakes us to the ecstatic possibilities of recognizing and risking love. Mary Oliver has called this project \"gorgeous,\" and said that he \"speaks of the events that have no larger or more important rival in our lives--of our love and our loving.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eIf to say it once\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnd once only, then still\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTo say: Yes.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnd say it complete, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSay it as if the word\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFilled the whole moment\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eWith its absolute saying.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eLater for \"but,\" \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLater for \"if.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNow\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eOnly the single syllable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThat is the beloved.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThat is the world.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eGregory Orr\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of ten books of poetry. He teaches at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378344165599,"sku":"9781556592836","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/40T7Ok8JNH9781556592836.webp?v=1789254452"},{"product_id":"we-interrupt-this-broadcast-poems-hardcover","title":"We Interrupt This Broadcast: Poems - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom a master lyric poet characterized by Mary Oliver as \"a Walt Whitman without an inch of Whitman's bunting and oratory\" comes this late-life collection that takes its overall title from the venerable phrase that alerted listeners and viewers to an urgent event of public significance. Again and again, the poems in \u003cem\u003eWe Interrupt This Broadcast\u003c\/em\u003e dramatize, in simple and deep language, what it feels like to be alive in our time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe disconnects that haunt and animate these poems are political, ecological, and psychological. Some, like \"Un-Earth: A Sequence,\" revisit early trauma experienced both intimately and socially, while others contemplate our present ecological crises.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet against this somber background of disconnects, Gregory Orr invokes the natural world and human intimacy as sources of growth and hope. Giving voice to both personal and universal anguish, \u003cem\u003eWe Interrupt This Broadcast\u003c\/em\u003e repeatedly transforms desolation into celebration, silence and suffering into song.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom \"So often there's a disconnect . . .\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eSo often there's a disconnect: \u003c\/em\u003e \u003cem\u003e \u003cbr\u003e You know the world\u003cbr\u003e Is ending and you eat your soup.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eI'm weeding in my garden\u003cbr\u003e As a flash flood warning\u003cbr\u003e Comes my way, complete with siren.\u003cbr\u003e The sky's gray, but nothing else\u003cbr\u003e Indicates so dire a situation.\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51378714607839,"sku":"9781324124238","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/3NZc7C8xHb9781324124238.webp?v=1789261566"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/gregory-orr.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}