Product Description
In 1988, at the age of fifty, Diana Wakoski selected the poems in Emerald Ice from her first sixteen books of poetry. Here, returned to print at last, are all the famous (and infamous) lyrics, series, and narratives that established Wakoski as a mythologizer of sex and self, a fierce free-verse imagist, and one of the most important and controversial poets to come out of California in the 1960s.

About these poems, Wakoski writes: "My themes are loss, justice, truth, transformation, the duality of the world, the possibilities of magic, and the creation of beauty out of ugliness. My language is dramatic, oral, and as American as I can make it. I am impatient with stupidity, bureaucracy, and organizations. Poetry, for me, is the supreme art of the individual using language to show how special, different, and wonderful his perceptions are. With verve and finesse. With discursive precision. And with utter contempt for pettiness of imagination or spirit."

Emerald Ice is a contemporary classic, the essential poems of a uniquely American female sensibility.

Amazon.com Review
This is my favorite collection from wild woman Wakoski because of its combinations of elements and its dark humor. Music is infused throughout the poems, with Beethoven presented as an angry father figure. The father motif is echoed and universalized in poems about George Washington who was "dull or hard to talk to," and of course THAT isn't classical." The King of Spain symbolizes the mysterious lover, a kind of Melrose-Place man who is ever the dream but never there to change the furnace filters when you need him to. A bawdy, smart and sassy collection with occasional twists of poignance that will wring your heart.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 5.0 based on 2 reviews)

The Feminist Poet's Bible

Wakoski's beautiful & brutal language weaves itself into a poetric lyric that is unmatched in women's poetry today. She attacks every subject & issue with intensity and strips flesh from bone. This collection is a MUST HAVE.
January 15, 2002

Beautiful, Honest Words

Diane Wakoski is one of those poets that grabs you with her honesty and her crystalline lyrics. Although her poems are usually fiercely personal, Wakoski's strength lies in her ability not only to translate her grief, but to allow the reader to find something of themselves in it. She is a wonderful writer, whom I can recommend without reservation. My favorite piece from Emerald Ice- I Have Had To Learn To Live With My Face.
April 11, 2000

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

The Butcher's Apron: New & Selected Poems Including Greed: Part 14
by Diane Wakoski

Inside the Blood Factory
by Diane Wakoski

The Comfort of Strangers
by Ian Mcewan

The Midnight
by Susan Howe

Fast Speaking Woman: Chants and Essays (City Lights Pocket Poets Series)
by Anne Waldman