At the Great Door of Morning: Selected Poems and Translations

Robert Hedin

“Every poem is a creation myth,” writes poet Robert Hedin. This long overdue retrospective, spanning forty years of patient and painstaking work, highlights Hedin’s original poems and translations of Norwegian poets and includes the aphoristic essay “Field Notes.” Hedin’s poems—elegant, spare, and devoid of artifice—detail themes of Midwestern life, the natural world, ocean liners, and airships. A profound, essential volume.

Paperback: $18.00 list price

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ISBN: 9781556595042

Format: Paperback

The Kelp-Cutters

Ten years since I buried
All the air I could,
And followed you
Down into the dark,
Your breath shimmering
Like stars on the kelp.
Joe, when we broke through
That last time and found
The boat gone, the air
So cold we lay there
Not saying a word,
Hand in hand, treading
Until your warm grip went slack—
Joe, I could do nothing
But ride with the kelp
Into dawn, rocking
In the cold slate,
Listening to myself pump
The damp night full of breath.

About the Author

Robert Hedin was born in 1949 in Minnesota. He is the author, translator, and editor of nearly two dozen books of poetry and prose, including At the Great Door of Morning: Selected Poems and Translations. Awards for his work include three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in Poetry, a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, and a McKnight Artist Fellowship. He has taught at Sheldon Jackson College, the Anchorage and Fairbanks campuses of the University of Alaska, the University of Minnesota, …

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Reviews

“There isn’t a flaw or misstep or a lack of humility on a single page… I invite you to turn to just one page, to any page, and to let what’s there wash over you with its beauty, its clarity, its precision, and its delicately balanced emotional weight.” —Ted Kooser

“Robert Hedin is one of the quietest, most spiritually sensate poets of our time.” —Olga Broumas