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Stanley Kunitz with Genine Lentine

The Wild Braid

A Poet Reflects on a Century in the Garden

Photographs by Marnie Crawford Samuelson

"A graceful and moving glimpse into a rare and giving artist's refined poetics, garden aesthetics, and spirituality."—Booklist

Throughout his life (1905-2006) Stanley Kunitz created poetry and tended gardens. This book is the distillation of conversations, none previously published, that took place between 2002 and 2004. Beginning with the garden, that "work of the imagination," the explorations journey through personal recollections, the creative process, and the harmony of the life cycle. A bouquet of poems and a total of 26 full-color photographs accompany the various sections. The Wild Braid received a 2006 American Horticultural Society Book Award.

"A miracle."—Galway Kinnell

"No one who has ever gardened passionately will be a stranger to the sentiments Kunitz expresses about this act of domestic creation, but very few of us will ever come close to writing about it with his grace and clarity. This is indeed a book to cherish."—Kate Tyndall, Raleigh News & Observer

Stanley Kunitz, much-honored poet, was cofounder of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and of Poets House in New York City. He died in 2006. Genine Lentine lives in Provincetown. Marnie Crawford Samuelson lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
The Wild Braid book jacket

Also Available:
The Collected Poems

Collected Poems book jkt


April 2007 / paperback / ISBN 978-0-393-32997-1
2005 / hardcover / ISBN 978-0-393-06141-3
7" x 8" / 144 pages / Poetry
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