Charles Simic Books

Presents a collection of poems that examines the darker side of history and human behavior, looking at the strange interplay between ordinary life and extremes and between reality and imagination.

Words plus words relate the poet's reaction to anything; for example, his secret the room is empty, and the window is open

Selected Early Poems spans the years 1963-1983 and includes works from Simic’s first twelve collections. United States poet laureate & Pulitzer Prize winner, Charles Simic adds a new introduction to the most comprehensive collection of his early poetry from 1963-1983.

Serbian by birth, brought up under Nazi occupation and transplanted to America in his teens, Charles Simic has had the opportunity to distill a highly particular vision of the world, in which comic gaiety goes hand in hand with the recognition of our darker spiritual and philosophical problems. Blending the real and the surreal, the urbane and the uncanny, Simic's poems construct a neighbourhood of experience that is estranged yet recognisably at home with its surroundings. He notes what the eye sees and what the subsconscious has to say on the matter, in a poetry which is a triumph of the plain style.This selection, made by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author himself from forty years of writing, is an outstanding overview of one of the wisest American poets.'Simic's writing comes dancing out on the balls of its feet, colloquially fit as a fiddle, a sparring partner for the world.' Seamus Heaney

An insightful and haunting new collection from Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Charles Simic Irreverent and sly, observant and keenly imagined, Come Closer and Listen is the latest work from one of our most beloved poets.

From one of America's most beloved poets, a piercing new collection reflecting on the characters and encounters that haunt us through this life and into the nextLeading us into a city stirring with gravediggers and beggars, lovers and dogs, Charles Simic returns with a brilliant collection full of his singular wit, dark humor, and tenderheartedness. In poems that are often as spare as they are monumental, he captures the fleeting moments of modern life—peering inside pawnshop windows, brushing shoulders with strangers on the street, and walking familiar cemetery rows—to uncover all the beauty and worry hiding in plain sight.As the poet reflects on a lifetime’s worth of pleasure and loss, he recalls instances when he “made excuses and hurried away,” and considers the way memory always trails just behind. No Land in Sight is a testament to all we leave in our wake and, simultaneously, all we hang on the passing minutes, the evening’s stillness, and the many lives we inhabit in dim thresholds and bright mornings alike.

Charles Simic's poetry showcases his mastery through a distinctive style characterized by jittery syntax and profound insights. His unique voice creates an eccentric kingdom of thought, inviting readers into a world rich with unexpected imagery and philosophical depth. The collection reflects his ability to blend the ordinary with the extraordinary, offering a captivating exploration of language and perception.

Photographs of breasts are everywhere: in museums, on book covers, in fashion ads, and on posters. Alluring symbols of womanhood, breasts have fascinated generations of image makers. Here, for the first time between two covers, is the breast in photography: the titillating breast, the maternal breast, the aging breast, and the symbolic breast.

Charles Simic, der große amerikanische Lyriker, erinnert sich an seine Kindheit und Jugend in Belgrad, Paris und Amerika. Als er drei Jahre alt ist, bombardieren die Deutschen seine Heimatstadt Belgrad. 'Alle Kinder spielten Krieg. Wie liebten wir den Klang der Maschinengewehre! Diese Art zu spielen machte die Erwachsenen verrückt.' Und die sind eigentlich schon verrückt genug: der Großvater, der in seinem Haß auf die Kirche den Priester verprügelt; der Onkel, der den Deutschen einen Armeelaster klaut, um mit seiner Freundin eine Spritztour zu machen, was zur Verhaftung des Vaters durch die Gestapo führt. Überhaupt der Vater: er ist die geliebte Hauptfigur in diesen Erinnerungen, ein Geschichtenerzähler und Schlawiner. Im Juni 1953 erhält die Mutter für sich und die Kinder die Erlaubnis zur Ausreise, 1954, nach einem Jahr in Paris, die Visa für Amerika, wo Simics Karriere als amerikanischer Dichter beginnt.

Die poetischen Kästen von Joseph Cornell repräsentieren die amerikanische Kunst der Moderne. Charles Simic hat in einer Reihe von Gedichten und Prosastücken ein sprachliches Pendant zu Cornells Arbeiten geschaffen, das den amerikanischen Alltag und seine Facetten widerspiegelt.