The Gatehouse Heaven: Poems

"Kimbrell sings a serious song. . . . The poems are deft and sure, there is a sense of vision in them, and I have the feeling that this is the start of something significant."-from the Foreword by Charles Wright


In his debut collection (selected by Charles Wright as the 1997 winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry), Kimbrell revisits the mysterious landscapes of childhood and returns with poems that fathom meaning yet retain a sense of awe. The book's title section, a poignant ten-part poem, portrays a son's lifelong struggle to connect with a father made absent by mental and physical illness: "It's quite/The wonder, what madness can do for a man,//Much more than me far below the harsh light of heaven/Down here, in the make-shift center of this world." The Gatehouse Heaven serves as testament and guide to the kind of love that lies beyond anger.


James Kimbrell has received a Ford Foundation Fellowship, a Henry Hoynes Fellowship, and the Ruth Lilly Fellowship. He was twice winner of the Academy of American Poet's Prize and also received the "Discovery"/The Nation Award and Poetry magazine's Bess Hokin Prize. His poems and co-translations (with Jung Yul Yu) have appeared in magazines such as Poetry, The Antioch Review, The Quarterly, and Field. He is currently completing his Ph.D. in creative writing at the University of Missouri, Columbia.