This book was one of the most interesting books i have ever read! A deffinate best seller!

The Veritable Years is the second volume of The Crooked Lines of God: A Life Trilogy, the collected poems of William Everson. Each of the three volumes reflects a major stage in the life of the poet and the thematic development of his verses. Everson, who was known as "the poet of the San Joaquin," died at his home on Kingfisher Flat in Santa Cruz County, California, in June 1994. He left behind 52 volumes of poetry and 10 books of prose. During his lifetime, Everson received every major literary award and fellowship for poetry; only the Pulitzer eluded him. Everson was Poet in Residence at Kresge College at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1971 to 1981, when he retired from academic life.

Everson was a member of the Dominican Order of monks between 1951 and 1969. He wrote poetry and gave public readings of his verses as Brother Antoninus. Time magazine referred to Everson as the "Beat Friar," though, strictly speaking, Everson was not a member of the Beat Generation literary movement. According to Stanford University's Albert Gelpi, Everson was the greatest religious poet of the second half of the twentieth century, succeeding T. S. Eliot, whom Gelpi dubbed the greatest religious poet of the first half of the century. Everson's "A Canticle to the Waterbirds" is a masterpiece of religious verse. One has to go back to Francis Thompson and Gerard Manley Hopkins for comparisons. Everson's religious verse is published in this volume.

Everson's early verse was highly secular and pantheistic. Much of it was written under the influence of Robinson Jeffers, whom Everson considered a mentor. The early poems (1934-1948) are published in Volume 1 of the trilogy as The Residual Years.

Everson left the religious life in 1969 to return to the secular world and marry Susanna Rickson, his third wife. The poems of the latter period (1966-1994) show Everson's maturation as a poet and a man. He returns to nature, and his verse becomes secular again and at times erotic. The poems of this period are published in Volume 3 of the trilogy as The Integral Years.

The three volumes of the trilogy were actually planned by Everson during his lifetime and carried through to completion posthumously by the dedicated work of Allan Campo and Bill Hotchkiss, longtime friends of the poet, who edited the collection. They also collected Everson's unpublished and uncollected poems, which are published in the volumes as appendixes.

This brief collection of poetry by the former Carmel, CA resident Robinson Jeffers contains some of his strongest lyrical work. Although suited for an introductory course on poetry, I'm not sure why the publishers (Stanford UP) would think that this volume ... is a better deal than the other recent Stanford UP volume, The Collected Poetry, which includes some of Jeffers's prose (Prefaces/Letters) and is more comprehensive ...

This is a slim volume--about the size of Hass's previous collection (Rock and Hawk, now out-of-print). But it is vastly superior in text and style to The Selected Poems (thin book, red and blue cover, ...).

I highly recommend this text. It contains the "Best Of" Jeffers's poetic gems, such as "Shine, Perishing Republic," (apropos for our current times), and "For Una," to name a couple.

Jeffers was an amazing American poet. For once I disagree with Vendler's estimation of his poetic merits and craft. I would recommend Jeffers to a reader in the same spirit that Hass, C. Milosz, Wm. Everson, and Bukowski recommended that we listen to his prophetic voice. Jeffers's work embodies the Carmel landscape and cosmic essence of Northern California. Yet his voice is universal and resounds with tragic wisdom.

I also recommend Hass, Milosz, Everson, H. Miller, and the academic treatments of Jeffers's work by Robert Brophy.

Adrienne Rich has to be the most over-rated poet in history. Her work would be completely forgotten if it was judged as poetry, but because she has been adopted as the ideological idol of PC fanatics everywhere, she has become an untouchable icon of the present. Rich is best compared, intellectually, to the literary drudges of Soviet Russia, who extolled the glories of the people for the Communist Party. The diffrence, obviously, is that Rich is not embraced by the State, but by the buddy system that is academic feminism. This volume, complete with the breathless worship -- oh, sorry, critical scholarly attention -- of the editor, is a very fine presentation of what is, for all practical purposes, the work of a transient figure whose prominence is entirely dependent on the current PC state of the American academic establishment. If you wandered to this book because it claims to be poetry, why not skip it and try someone with some soul adn some real poetic talent?

Oct. 5: She is presented with prestigious Lannan Literary Award..for $100,000 for a job in writing,well.

Not merely a wonderful and incredibly courageous poet; oh, no. She is also a brilliant and challenging essayist. Most famous for "The Hermit's Scream", her other prose is absolutely startling in its originality and courage. This book is a threat to white males everywhere. I cannot recommend it highly enough.