Letters from a Stranger

by James Tipton

Book Overview

This collection of poems by James Tipton contains a Foreward by Isabel Allende. Each poem testifies to the bedrock of Tipton's imagination and taken together, the poes are extravagant yet earthy, tender yet passionate, wild yet intimate, crazy yet hopeful. It is a poetry of transformations, an invocation of exuberant vitality.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965715930
• ISBN13: 9780965715935
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Bower House
• Length: 92 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.9" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Unique, splendidly crafted, enduringly memorable poetry.

The poetry of James Tipton collected in Letters From A Stranger is unique, engaging, splendidly crafted, and enduringly memorable. A Stray God, Or A Thump In The Night: A stray God, or a thump in the night,/or a cathedral bell far off/begins its steady prayer,/coming closer and closer until/I wake on this damp hill and realize/the bell that woke me/is this very heart,/a prodigal sound come home.//Putting consciousness together, I do/simple things: "two and five make four,/and then ten"; still nothing, nothing but/the mother of breathing/beneath me, nothing but the fragrance/of hill, the head of stars in the cool night,/nothing but the rivers inside pulled awake/by the Pope on the moon, by the mist/at the edge of a woman in another galaxy.

"a dense, delicous book on what we may willingly give away.

James Tipton's Letters From a Stranger is a dense and delicious book of poetry in which the reader joins the author on a journey that rambles, yet closely examines the essences of what constitute life, loving, and belief. It is a work of contradictions, searching yet grounded; hungry yet consumed; concerned with metaphysical matters yet held to time and place with a crafted and careful naming of those things that are Tipton's life. We are invited to join in a dance of bees, high desert sage, Colorado canyon landscape, Peruvian tourism, longing, loneliness, and loving.Tipton's restlessness is a discomfort and an example of one seeking and finding a connection through the stuff of the world, a world that is chocked full like a vivid dream, unfettered and embracing. These Letters are ones of love for they expose the author inside and out, a challenge to what we are willing to give away to strangers. The language of Letters From a Stranger is ecstatic and surreal with images of love and the landscape interspersed with pieces of personal information.In It Is True That I Lack Focus, we find a man examining his strengths and weaknesses outloud. He confesses, "It is true that I remain clumsy...", but knows what is good in himself and for him. As honest and local as one can be in Those Evenings When All of God's Conundrums he admits,"...what I lack in purity of spiritual intention I compensate for in purity of desperation; and some compensation, unexpected, sets in, like the subdued pain in the ring finger from the bite of the Black Widow six weeks ago;"Again Tipton looks to find how his happiness might be made in Being Stubborn,"Being stubborn is the only thing that ever brought me is this place I have come to, where caught in God's own curfew I wander through this late house, realizing longing is the hardest wing of the gossamer child?" from-- What Is This Place I Have Come To?Here is the tale of a man who has abandoned the comforts of one life or several, to find that which is dear and true about life, love, and his inner being. It is informative that we are told Tipton has a dog, named Ananda, a cat, named Gosi, and lives in Glade Park, Colorado on top of a mesa. It is through how we are told these things that the craft of poetry lives and opens to us like the flower to Tipton's beloved bees. His abstract as those words are, these poems are immediate, emotional, and full to the top of loving and life. These Letters are missives sent out without need of recompense. They make the world a richer place for us all

James Tipton's poetry goes straight to the heart.

His poems made me laugh and cry and remember what poets are supposed to do. Tipton is among the best because he writes for all of us. His poetry arises from the longing that makes us human beyond the labels, the money, the education or profession. Having nothing to do with poetic vanity, intellectual games or self-indulgence, it is accessible to everyone. Whether you are a lover of poetry or one who has never found it appealing, I hope you will treat yourself to this rare and wonderful book.

delicious poetry-- Neruda would blush and weep with joy

Would that we all could receive Letters from a Stranger. The story behind this book (told by Isabelle Allende in the introduction) is one of old-fashioned romance, mystery and curiousity. This is a book that surpasses its introduction. Poem after poem, Jim Tipton shares with the reader his passionate treasure chest. His images range from familiar (window shades) to shocking (feet found in the desert). Every line sings with wanton beauty and longing. Tipton is a seeker who has found the key to poetry, yet keeps searching. This is a book to cherish, to share and to snuggle with all by yourself. Read the poems out loud ... there's a magic to these words that you'll discover when you speak them. Letters from a Stranger is a triumph for the West.

James Tipton is the greatest living American poet.

James Tipton is the greatest living American poet. His most recent work Letters from a Stranger reverberates among the mesas and canyonlands of the American West, finding joy in the love of a dog, a solitary trek across the desert, a ray of sunlight illuminating a jar of honey on a windowsill. With a unique insight into the depths and complexities of human life, Tipton examines the riddles and paradoxes of the universe and emerges from the experience with words of gold that celebrate life and love, beauty and simple goodness. His work will be required reading for generations of students of literature and will stand for all time as a living monument to its creator.