Ron Padgett's title poem asks: "How long do you want to go on being the person you think you are? / How Long, a city in China." With the arrival of his first grandchild, Padgett becomes even more inspired to confront the eternal mysteries in poems with a wry, rueful honesty that comes only with experience, in his case sixty-eight years of it.
I never thought,
forty years ago,
taping my poems into a notebook,
that one day the tape
would turn yellow, grow brittle, and fall off
and that I'd find myself on hands and knees
groaning as I picked the pieces up
off the floor
one by one
Ron Padgett is a celebrated translator, memoirist, and "a thoroughly American poet, coming sideways out of Whitman, Williams, and New York Pop with a Tulsa twist" (Peter Gizzi). His poetry has been translated into more than a dozen languages and has appeared in The Best American Poetry, The Norton Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry, The Oxford Book of American Poetry, and on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac. He was also a guest on Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion in 2009. Padgett is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and his most recent books include How to Be Perfect; You Never Know, Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard; and If I Were You. Born in Oklahoma, he lives in New York City and Calais, Vermont.
Industry Reviews
2012 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (Finalist)
"An enchanting collection of poems that juggle delight, wit and endless fascination with language."?2012 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry Jurors
?Padgett's sense of romantic joy is undiminished, as is his thoughtfulness about language and the ways in which time changes meaning, and sense can morph into eloquent absurdity." ?Entertainment Weekly
?What sets Padgett apart from other accessible, humorous poets is his willingness to become both difficult and serious when a poem requires it. . . . Padgett's complexity lies in his ability to depart from a thought as soon as he introduces it (the poem ?Death," for instance, begins, ?Let's change the subject"), a strategy of which he is never unconscious: ?What was I thinking about/ a few minutes ago when/ another thought / swept me away?" It is these instances, in which Padgett uses his poems to help piece together his recollections, that give this collection its vulnerability and sincerity."?Publishers Weekly
"Padgett's poems are so playful, self-mocking and eager to please that it would be easy to overlook their craft, not to mention the depth and sincerity of the emotions they convey. What animates How Long is the tension between the buoyancy of its language and the gravity of its subject." ?The Washington Post
Praise for Ron Padgett:
?Reading Padgett one realizes that playfulness and lightness of touch are not at odds with seriousness. . . . As is often the case, leave it to the comic writer to best convey our tragic predicament." ?Charles Simic, New York Review of Books
2012 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (Finalist)
"An enchanting collection of poems that juggle delight, wit and endless fascination with language."-2012 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry Jurors
"Padgett's sense of romantic joy is undiminished, as is his thoughtfulness about language and the ways in which time changes meaning, and sense can morph into eloquent absurdity." -Entertainment Weekly
"What sets Padgett apart from other accessible, humorous poets is his willingness to become both difficult and serious when a poem requires it. . . . Padgett's complexity lies in his ability to depart from a thought as soon as he introduces it (the poem "Death," for instance, begins, "Let's change the subject"), a strategy of which he is never unconscious: "What was I thinking about/ a few minutes ago when/ another thought / swept me away?" It is these instances, in which Padgett uses his poems to help piece together his recollections, that give this collection its vulnerability and sincerity."-Publishers Weekly
"Padgett's poems are so playful, self-mocking and eager to please that it would be easy to overlook their craft, not to mention the depth and sincerity of the emotions they convey. What animates How Long is the tension between the buoyancy of its language and the gravity of its subject." -The Washington Post
Praise for Ron Padgett:
"Reading Padgett one realizes that playfulness and lightness of touch are not at odds with seriousness. . . . As is often the case, leave it to the comic writer to best convey our tragic predicament." -Charles Simic, New York Review of Books
