Poetry. "Poetry presents the thing in order to convey the feeling. It should be precise about the thing and reticent about the feeling, for as soon as the mind responds and connects with the thing the feeling shows in the words; this is how poetry enters deeply into us. If the poet presents directly feelings which overwhelm him, and keeps nothing back to linger as an aftertaste, he stirs us superficially; he cannot start the hands and feet involuntarily waving and tapping in time, far less strengthen morality and refine culture, set heaven and earth in motion and call up the spirits!"—Wei T'ai (eleventh century)

Old Dogs, New Tricks

Literature & Fiction

Starck, Clemens

Poetry

Oblio Press

Cathedrals & Parking Lots: Collected Poems

Poetry. In his early twenties, Clemens Starck dropped out of Princeton and decided to take responsibility for his own education--to read deeply, travel widely, and write poems with the precision and plainspoken-ness of the Chinese masters. Over the decades, he also kept his mind clear by making a living with his hands. CATHEDRALS & PARKING LOTS represents the work of a lifetime--poems of memorable clarity and substance based on actual experiences, whether standing lookout on the bow of a freighter, dismantling houses for a living, building a freeway overpass, or traveling to Russia and studying the language. Composed in the cadences of everyday speech, Starck's poems have the functional beauty of a Shaker chair--every word, every line, every image belongs.

Empty Bowl

About the Author\nClemens Starck was born in 1937. A Princeton dropout and former merchant seaman, he has supported his literary and intellectual interests for more than fifty years by working with his hands, mainly as a carpenter and construction foreman. He is the author of six books of poetry, including STUDYING RUSSIAN ON COMPANY TIME, OLD DOGS, NEW TRICKS, and CATHEDRALS & PARKING LOTS: COLLECTED POEMS, and has performed his poems widely throughout the West. In 1998, Starck was the Witter Bynner Fellow at Willamette University and received both the Wiliam Stafford Memorial Poetry Award and the Oregon Book Award in Poetry for his collection, Journeyman's Wages (Story Line Press, 1995). A widower, he has three grown children and lives on forty-some acres in the foothills of the Coast Range in western Oregon.\nPoetry. In his early twenties, Clemens Starck dropped out of Princeton and decided to take responsibility for his own education--to read deeply, travel widely, and write poems with the precision and plainspoken-ness of the Chinese masters. Over the decades, he also kept his mind clear by making a living with his hands. CATHEDRALS & PARKING LOTS represents the work of a lifetime--poems of memorable clarity and substance based on actual experiences, whether standing lookout on the bow of a freighter, dismantling houses for a living, building a freeway overpass, or traveling to Russia and studying the language. Composed in the cadences of everyday speech, Starck's poems have the functional beauty of a Shaker chair--every word, every line, every image belongs.

Yokohama
Wondering why not a single plum tree grew
in the holy compound of the Ise Shrine,
Basho was told
there was no special reason...
Hot night on Isezaki Street.
Big yellow moon.
Storefront TV. After six full innings Tokyo
leads Hiroshima, 5 to 3.
What is this? Japanese bartenders look
like American bartenders.
Sonuvabitch! Drunk in Yokohama
and Basho isn't here.
Clemens Starck works as a carpenter and construction foreman.
Also Available by Clemens Starck
Journeyman's Wages
PB $10.95, 1-885266-02-2 CUSA

China Basin

Story Line Press

Poetry. Between his poems, Clemens Starck reflects upon the act of language: Trying to grasp another language is tantalizing. It requires considerable guesswork, becoming itself an act of imagination. The museum described in the next poem is a fiction, a metaphor, a composite of the various museums I visited in Russia. The tour is a fantasy. In fact, Russian history itself is a kind of strange fairy tale or fantasy. What began as a whim, learning the Russian language, became an obsession for Claemens Starck, a process by which to fathom a baffling nation. Clemens Starck works as a carpenter at Oregon State University in Corvallis and teaches poetry classes at Willamette University.

STUDYING RUSSIAN ON COMPANY TIME

History & Criticism

Silverfish Review Press

Poetry. Travel. In this unusual book, Oregon poet and carpenter Clemens Starck recounts in verse and in prose his involvement with Russia and the Russian language. "What began as a joke," writes Starck in the prologue, "soon turned into an obsession." Poems written during and around his twp trips to Russia in the 1990s alternate with bried prose commentaries providing the background and context from which the poems arose.

Studying Russian on Company Time, Second Edition

"Journeyman's Wages" is written with the precision of a skilled craftsman. Whether Starck writes about pouring concrete, butchering rabbits, studying Chinese, or confronting questions from his young son, his poetry speaks in precise, clear language rooted in mind AND body. This work was the recipient of two major book awards: the William Stafford Memorial Poetry Award and the Oregon Book Award.

Journeyman's Wages

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Starck, Clemens. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Starck, Clemens

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Starck, Clemens. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Old Dogs, New Tricks

Cathedrals & Parking Lots: Collected Poems

Cathedrals & Parking Lots: Collected Poems

China Basin

STUDYING RUSSIAN ON COMPANY TIME

Studying Russian on Company Time, Second Edition

Journeyman's Wages