Reviews

Making Certain It Goes On: The Collected Poems of Richard Hugo by Richard Hugo, William Kittredge

stevesaroff's review

5.0

I was a friend of Richard Hugo, meeting him when I was living outside when I was 18. I met him in Harold's club one summer afternoon. He talked me into taking his classes. He encouraged me to send my dyslexic writing -- short stories -- to magazines. He said, "There are lots of people out there who can spell and fix grammar mistakes, but not so many who can get the story right." He changed my life. So how in the world can I write a fair review of any of his perfect books? I can't. The world is not fair. I miss this guy, his laughter, his stories, his wisdom, his vodka and freskas he would serve at his small kitchen table, the windows in his classroom that he would open to blow his cigarette smoke out of during class, his pointed attention to everything honest. And all that, and much more comes through his words. Buy two copies of this book. One to keep. The other to give. You won't regret the actions.

mugren's review against another edition

1.0

How many poems can a single person possibly write about nature and expect them to all be good?

senid's review

I enjoyed Triggering Town by this poet, and wanted to read some of his poetry. Poems always have context, and the context here is fish, desolate landscapes, almost deserted towns, more fishing, going home, surviving growing up, Italy, WWII, and more. The earlier poems felt very impersonal to me, but I think it can be difficult to face the personal and history when it wasn't happy and supportive. I really enjoyed the section of letter poems. My context is more internal perhaps, or a different landscape than his. I had a hard time connecting to these poems.

jeanetterenee's review

5.0

I think of this collection as an unintentional autobiography. If you read the poems from start to finish in the order presented, you follow Richard Hugo's progression from loneliness to love and friendship, addiction through recovery, and depression to hope. Most appealing of all are his poems revealing his love of nature, and of beauty in all its manifestations. He visited places altered by progress and imagined the lives of those forgotten by history, those who loved and depended upon the land they occupied.

Of all the bits and pieces of poems I could share here, this is the one that speaks to me most deeply of Hugo's essence:

"Today I am certain,
for all my terrible mistakes I did the right thing
to love places and scenes in my innocent way and to spend
my life writing poems, to receive like a woman
the world in its enduring decay and to tell
that world like a man that I am not afraid to weep
at the sadness, the ongoing day that is draining our life
and is life."
(excerpt from "Letter to Peterson from the Pike Place Market" p. 289)

Tidbits on other topics:

Friendship
"The best friends
we remember took us home the way we are."

Politics
"One thing about politicians, they can never be whores,
they're not honest enough. They screw men in ways that only
satisfy themselves."

War
"Dear Charles: And so we meet once in San Francisco and I
learn I bombed you long ago in Belgrade when you were five."

Stones
"Act friendly to the stone.
Smile. Touch. Even pat its brown hand
and say 'good stone, good,' though of course
be alone when you do. Don't get a reputation:
'Creep with pet rock.'"

(It's always a good idea to proofread your reviews before posting. When I previewed this review I discovered I'd left the "p" off of "weep" in the first excerpt!)

juliechristinejohnson's review

5.0

Just discovering Hugo's poetry. My heart hurts, it dances, it sinks and it soars with his words. He was a Seattle native, but wrote about Montana, Italy and Scotland as well as the Pacific Northwest. My copy-only a week old- is becoming dog-eared as I select poems in wonder, promising to return.