The Weight of Oranges / Miners Pond / Skin Divers: Poems

So far, I've been very absorbed with her words.Some verses I hardly know what she's talking about, but I get the sense that it's supposed to be very lyrical and such. The poems I liked best are the short ones, the ones with imagery painted with unusual combination of adjectives and interesting mix of metaphors I have to read thrice before fully seeing the image she painted with her words. I like her. (She'sa quirky siren in my head, at least that's how I feel when I read her work. Don't worry if [...]

I read more than half of this before giving up, at least for the time being. When Michaels is good, as with a monologue like "Ice House," she is very good, a quieter, less direct counterpart to Richard Howard's fussier monologues. But too many of the poems seem to me to be simply psycho-dramas, a mix of image and direct statement exploring her emotional states. This wears on me very soon.

"We recognize death and love when we start calling them names"I was so in love with every letter and every word on every page. I found myself almost obsessed, carrying it around everywhere with me.No review can describe her marvellous words, must read.

4.5 A worthwhile read for scientists, historians and poets. Michaels never ceases to fail at speaking to memory whilst gesturing to the personal and the shared histories of peoples. One of the few times I have enjoyed longer form and segmented poems. For me the most memorable line, "Blood, that euphemism for what moves in us." is concluded at the end of the collection with "Slowly you translate fear into love, / the way the moon's blood is the sea."

Michaels combines geology and biology in twisting narrative poems brimming with feeling. Her poems have a weighty mineral feel; salt and iodine. She layers art and language, landscape and texture and substance and beautynsuality and substance come together with immense gravity.

This is a beautiful book. "Flowers," "Phantom Limbs," "Turning Twenty-three," not to mention "The Weight of Oranges." One of my favorite lines?"We grow old like rivers, get shrunk and doubled over until we can't find the mouth of anything." (from "The Weight of Oranges")

Up there on the list of my favorite books of all time. I could devour the images and feelings invoked. Utterly conceptual and delicious.

Anne Michaels has a wonderful way with language, and as I was reading this, occasionally a line or two would really catch me. I also really loved that there was a poem about Kepler. At the same time though, poetry just doesn't really do it for me. I much prefer a big meaty story I can really get lost in.

Hands down my favourite book by any author in any genre. Certain sentences are so painfully beautiful I have to repeat them to myself over and over again or copy them out. I like to carry it around with me and read it outside in the sunshine or wind.

I'd read Skin Divers before, but the rest of this book was new to me and I fell in love, love, love. Definitely merits a re-read. And then a re-re-read.

There are three books in one here, with about 7-8 years between each, so quality and topics vary greatly. On top of that, I think I'm out of practice in my "poetry appreciation" skills. I will say without reservation that I much prefer the beautiful writing in her novel, Fugitive Pieces. The imagery and meaning is much more accessible there than in her poetry. With this book I found that I enjoyed small portions of many poems rather than whole poems. There were three that I did especially like i [...]

Completely in love with this collection which is comprised of three of Michaels collections which were all written as companions. She has an incredible understanding of language and descriptions of every small detail of humanity. every poem tells very specific stories that speaks to the human soul, experience, nature, loneliness, love, companionship, life, etc. I will love this collection forever and i'm excited to her novels in the future.

I found certain stanzas and specific lines absolutely memorable and evocative. As a collection it read like a sweeping travel log in which one is transported temporally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually throughout the history of the planet and human emotion, while being anchored by human-scale situations. But, I didn't find any individual poem that was essential as a whole. Great narrative poetry, masterfully written.

so much of the body and nature as it relates to the world is in this collections. Michaels also talks about marriage, divorce, different memories/moments in life, various artists. She is such an incredible writer. There were moments when i had to pause and re-read a section so that i could re-live the beauty of her words. the way she describes the body, the river, the world, is all so breathtaking. I'm excited to read more of her work.

This book is so filled with absolutely amazing imagery. It takes you places emotionally, spiritually and you aren't even aware that you have been there until you stop reading. Rich and colorful in her descriptions it is a very personal experience reading this collection of poetry. For all the poetry readers out there and those who never have I highly recommend it.

I love this book, and I love Anne Michaels. She's a little difficult to write a biography about though. My ridiculous thesis for my english class is that she uses the reoccurring image of a fridge to symbolize Judaism during the holocaust.

Anne Michael is the greatest sense-maker of them all in her way of connecting our existence and emotions to the world around us in the most beautiful way. I will read these collections many more times and I cannot wait for her next books to be released.

it's very good but the weight of oranges is worth the price of admission alone. go read it on tumblr. print it out and put it on the fridge and read it when you wait for the microwave. it's nice is all.

Everything Anne Michaels writes is brilliant.

This book of poems touched my heart in so many ways.

Only the Weight of Oranges - different edition.

As always Anne Michaels moves me to contemplate the universe! She presents life in a wonderous way. It's not a wonder that she has won prizes both for her poetry and her fiction!

Storytelling through poetry at it's finest.

I wanted to love this book but couldn't. Her poems are told in historic voices of famous artists, authors, poets, scientists etc. Interesting stories & information, but hard to enjoy as poetry.

I. Love. Anne. Michaels.

This gets read by me at least several times a year. Michaels comes up with metaphors that make me smile every time.