Selected Poems

Robert Creeley's poetry is as basic and necessary as the air we breathe; as hospitable, plain and open as our continent itself. He is the best we have. John Ashbery

"Why poetry?' Robert Creeley asks in his preface to this personal choice of his work over 45 years. 'Its materials are so constant, simple. elusive. specific. It costs so little and so much. It preoccupies a life, yet can only find one in living. It is music, a playful construct of feeling, a last word and communion."

The celebrated American poet has gathered together over 200 poems from his previous books, including The Charm, For Love, Later, A Day Book, Mirrors. Memory Gardens and Windows in addition to some new work.

Together they express the complex and scintillating delineatings of thought, feeling and emotion that our daily experiences throw up. Described by Robert Graves as a 'domestic poet', Creeley acknowledges here his commitment to the hearth. which he places at the centre of his world.