i discovered judevine in a class that almost beat the warmth out of this spectacular poetry. But, fortuneately i had the good fortune to hear david budbill do readings from judevine. I have been hooked ever since. His style is so friendly and engaging, and when combined with the rich texture of character and landscape, it quickly became my favorite book of poems.

Judevine is a must have for any avid reader of poetry. Budbill has an extrodenary ability to capture the momment and freeze it in time. You'll Love it! He has become one of my favorite writers.

David Budbill's story-poems are beautiful, heart-warming (and occasionally heart-breaking). They are best read aloud, and that may be why he's also such a great playwright. I believe these characters really exist, although David swears he made them up. Judevine is a song cycle, an epic, perhaps, of real people and real life--ennobled but not sugared over. Rich with sound, image, humor, and love.

While reading this book I could see myself in this town of Judevine, VT. Budbill wrote the poetry through the eyes of one of his characters, David a college graduate who had moved to this ficticious hillside town in northern Vermont. Every character comes alive, and has feelins and thoughts that the reader can see. I was able to relate to almost all of the characters of these poems, and was happy with them, and heartbroken with them as well. Perhaps the greatest character is Antione, a foul mouthed french logger, I am not sure if he was supposed to be french-canadian but that is how I percieved him. Antione has feelings on everything and gives us a humourous perspective on most issues, as well as our own lives. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys poetry. It almost seems to be a present day Canterbury Tales, and definitely worth reading. Also, if you are able, please watch the play "Judevine" by Budbill as well.

In Judevine, David Budbill transforms a small Vermont town and it's inhabitants into allegories for humanity. Though it's written as a play, or a series of poems, it could easily be a documentary because of it's accuracy. Every vermonter can recognize these charactors, or their real life counterparts. What's amazing about this book is Budbill's great compassion, he treats these people with respect. However Budbill transcends his material and creates art. I recommend this book without qualification to every reader, the casual one who enjoys beautiful writing and colloquial charactors and the more serious one who will understand Budbill's subtle allegories

Spruce Mt. near Barre, VT is David Budbill's inspriation for "Bones on Black Spruce Mountain". A visable presence from his writing cabin Budbill fantasized about climbing the mountain and what he might find at the top. He turned this fantasy into a fast paced adventure story about two boys setting out on the camping trip of their lives. Once the boys proved that they were right they could never share their discovery without betraying the bones that they found in the cave at the top of the mountain. David Budbill won the Dortho Canfield Fisher Book Award fo this book. The school children of Vermont voted this book the best on published during 1978 and it has been a popular one here in Vermont ever since. When Bidbill accepted the award he told the students who supported his book to kick in the screens of their television sets and get outside and explore for themselves.

I first read Budbill's book on the recommendation of one of my favorite authors. He said that it was a book that grew on you the more time you spent with it. I agree. Budbill mixes humor and tragedy in vignettes of those who live with him and around him in impoverished rural Vermont. Anyone who has a sensitive heart and an appreciation for quiet humor will thoroughly enjoy this collection of poems

I love Mildred Walker's writing. This is the fifth book of hers that I have read and it did not disappoint. She has such a way of bringing the reader into the minds and thoughts of the book's characters. Sometimes it is more what the characters do not say than what they do say that propels the story forward.

This book is about a perfect couple, Dr. Norton and his wife Sue. They have a rock solid marriage and then comes a devastating illness that strikes Sue. That changes everything, or does it? The story unfolds with the relationships between Dr. & Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Norton's sister Jean and all the med students and their wives. Not a lot of action, but I couldn't put it down, as the relationship stories unfolded.

Please give Mildred Walker a chance - she is a brilliant writer. My favorite book she has written is Winter Wheat, but I have loved all of her work that I have read so far.

This IS an awesome book With two courageous boys fighting for survival in an action packed wilderness adventure. there are 3 stories in this book. I could not put it down once I picked it up!

Worth the wait to receive this awesome book of poetry, prose, and pictures. An excellent Christmas gift for anyone who knows what it's like to work hard for the money.

"Then I quit the world, and withdrew into these mountains/ as I could lose my self and see the world/ with clear and simple eyes" (p. 21). These 98 poems were written by a mountain recluse, Judevine Mountain. According to the book jacket, David Budbill discovered the hermit living in the woods behind his house. These poems gaze inward, into the "sweet Zen emptiness" (p. 100) of the "almost sixty"-year-old poet's reclusive life. (It is no coincidence that Budbill was born in 1940 and is a poet also.) He calls his life "a vessel of silence" (p. 5) that allows him "room for thoughts to wander" (p. 17). He writes: I have known a solitude and stillness so profound/ that my own breath/ is the only evidence there is any life around" (p. 15).

These poems cannot avoid comparison to the 1200-year old songs of reclusive-poet, Han Shan (better known as "Cold Mountain). Cold Mountain was a true hermit and genuine sage. Bill Porter (a.k.a. "Red Pine") is the most recent translator of Cold Mountain. He likens hermit poets to "a mountain stream that brings fresh water down into town" (Tricycle, Winter 2000). In our "age of frantic travel" (p. 11), "a time of get and spend" (p. 92) for those "who yammer about money all the time" (p. 33), Judevine Mountain's wise poems have much to offer. "Struggle is what it means to be alive and free" (p. 37). "The end of life is in the mirror" (p. 59). "Be glad with just a cup of tea,/ a bird's song,/ a small book of plain poems, and your anonymity" (p. 47).

This collection raises the question of whether Judevine Mountain really "quit the world," as he claims, to live the solitary life of a true recluse, for he remains connected to the outside world through the telephone (pp. 51, 88), "health-insurance premiums, property taxes and car-repair bills" (p. 27). While it may not be the work of a true solitary, this "small book of plain poems" is insightful, rewarding, and at times even humorous. If this collection leaves you wanting more, then wander further upstream to Red Pine's COLLECTED SONGS OF COLD MOUNTAIN (2000).

G. Merritt

David Budbill has given us an essential book...poems that make us laugh and teach us of the humility of everyday living. Like Zen poet Han Shan, Budbill writes as a "crazy cloud," Zen mountain poet who celebrates the commonplace. The book moves through seven sections, from laughter to senses to sensibility, a clear and barebones book of poems that really matter.

There's not much comparable between Judevine, maybe Budbill's best known work, and Moment to Moment except for their quality. Although Budbill speaks with similar clarity and simplicity, his subject matter changes from the voices and stories of Judevine to David and the hermit poet's more interspective thoughts. His voice remains strong yet sensitive and his ideas remain original.

Yes, the title speaks for itself. Collected here are good poems. Good, bland, middle-of-the-road conservative poems for people who like their poetry straighforward and unchallenging. I ordered this collection with great anticipation. I was sorely disappointed. Maybe it was the monotone droning of Keillor's readings (I bought the audio CD) punctuated by one female author's breathy renditions. Maybe it was all the God-themed poems included for good measure. If I'd done my homework on Keillor's radio show I might have known better. I want poetry to rock me and give me goosebumps, especially when it's spoken word. I never thought Bukowski, Moore, Bishop, Thomas, and their like would have their unique voices so efficiently muted. I gave this work three stars because, after all, it is full of good poems. If "good" is good enough for you, enjoy.

These kinds of major-press anthologies (especially when put together by a celebrity) tend to be worthless: either heartwarming sop (i.e. "Poems that have Inspired Me") or the same English-class warhorses trotted out again. So I thumbed through "Good Poems" and was surprised to find...good poems; a mix of the standards (Frost, Dickinson, Shakespeare), modern academics (Oliver, Simic), and poets who seldom appear in these kinds of anthologies (Carver, Ferlinghetti, Bukowski.) Well-selected, thoughtfully placed, and (thank God) fun to read, this collection is a real jewel; a perfect gift for someone who thinks they could never like poetry.

Even if the poetry was less than stellar, this book would be worth buying just for Keillor's introduction. Instead of gushing empty platitudes, he takes a hard look at what makes a poem good (as opposed to just technically proficient.) Anyone interested in writing poetry should do themselves a favor and read it (Personally, I'm thrilled that someone else thinks Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and Allen Ginsberg are overrated, though I have to admit T.S. Eliot is growing on me...)

this is a wonderful read of well-organized poetic gems. there's a poem to suit your every thought or mood, and it makes a great introduction to those poets with whom you may not be familiar. a great value, edited by one of the greatest storytellers of our time.