Fire (1983)

Part 1
Drinking while driving / Luck / A tough business / Four dogs die / A picture of my father at age twenty-two / Hamir Ramuz (1818-1906) / Bankruptcy / The baker / Summer in Iowa / Alcohol / For Semra with the spirit of a warrior / Looking for a job 1 / Cheers / Jet boating on the Rogue River, July 4, 1977, Gold Beach, Oregon

Part 2
You guys don't know what love is

Part 3
Morning, thinking about the empire / The blue stone / Life in Tel Aviv and the Mississippi / News delivered to Macedonia / The mosque of Jaffa / Not far from here / Sudden rain / Balzac / Country affairs / This room / Rhodes / 480 BC, spring

Part 4
Near Klamath / Fall / Winter Insomnia / Prosser / Salmon Run at Night / Casting a Folding Rod in the Cowichan Stream / Poem for Dr. Pratt, the Female Pathologist / Wes Hardin: Seeing Pictures / Marriage / Another Life / The Postman as a Cancer Patient / Hemingway and W.
A Poem for C. Williams / Torture / Chi / Highway 99E starting in Chico / Cougar / Current / Hunter / Trying to sleep in on a Saturday morning in November / Louise / A Poem for Carl Wallenda, the greatest aerialist / Deschutes River / Forever


Where Water Meets Other Water (1985)

Part 1
1954, Woolworth's store / Radio waves / Movement / Hominy and the rain / Road / Fear / Romanticism / Ashtray / Still thinking of just one time / Where water merges with other water

Part 2
Happiness / Old times / Our first house in Sacramento / Next year / To my daughter / Terrible things / Energy / Locking the door behind you, trying to get back in / Medicine / Wenas Ridge / Reading / Rain / Money / Aspen

Part 3
At least/ Subsidy/ My Boat/ Poems I Didn't Write/ Work/ In 2020/ Juggler at Heaven's Gate/ Daughter and Apple Pie/ Commerce/ The Drowned Man's Fishing Rod/ A Walk/ Father's Wallet

Part 4
Ask him/Next door/Caucasus: A short epic/The blacksmith, and the scythe/The pipe/Listening/In Switzerland

Part 5
Gust/My Crow/Party/After the Rainy Days/Interview/Blood/Tomorrow/Sorrow/Harley's Swans

Part 6
Elk Camp/ The Window of the Summer House/ Memory 1/ Far Away/ Music/ And Besides/ All She Lived For/ Hat/ Late Night with Fog and Horse/ Venice/ Eve of Battle/ Extinction/ The Catch/ My Death/ For Now/ A Flock of Cranes

Part 7
Haircut / Happiness in Cornwall / Afghanistan / In a lighthouse near Sequim, Washington / Eagle / Yesterday, snow / Reading something in a restaurant / A poem not against singing birds / Late afternoon, April 8, 1984 / My work / Bridge / To Tess


Ultramarine (1986)

Part 1
This Morning/ Things I Need to Paint/ One Afternoon/ Circulation/ Spiderweb/ Balsa Wood/ Projectile/ Letter/ Autopsy Room/ Where They Lived/ Memory 2/ Tea/ Idiot/ Union Street: Summer 1975, San Francisco/ Bonnard's Nude/ Jean's TV/ Mesopotamia/ Jungle/ Hope/ The House Behind This House/ Allowance/ A Sensitive Woman

Part 2
Minuet / Departure / Spell / From the East, the Light / An Absurd Spell / Author of Her Misfortune / Gunpowder Carrier / Earwig / Nyquil / Possible Things / Not Working / Young Powerful Men of Mexico City / Where the Groceries Gone / What I Can Do / A Small Room / Sweet Light / Garden / Son / Kafka's Clock

Part 3
The past flowing at the speed of light / Staying awake together / In the lobby of Hotel Del Mayo / Bahia, Brazil / Phenomenon / Wind / Great Migration / Sleep / River / The best time of the day / Estimation / Company / Yesterday / Desk / Tableware / That pen / Prize / A story / Meadow / Idleness / Tendons / Waiting

Part 4
Debate/ Its Path/ September/ White Field/ Gunfight/ Window/ Heel/ Public Telephone Booth/ Cadillac and Poetry/ Simple/ Wound/ Mother/ The Child/ Field/ Reading 『Two Cities in Provence』/ Evening/ Rest/ Slippers/ Asia/ Gift


A New Way to the Falls (1989)

Part 1
Wet Photograph/ Thermopylae/ Two Worlds/ Smoke and Deception/ In the Greek Orthodox Church near Daphne/ For the Record/ Transformation/ Threat/ Conspirator/ This Word, Love/ Don't Run Away/ The Woman is at the Water's Edge

Part 2
Name/ Job Search 2/ Foreign Book Salesman/ Toes/ Moon, Train/ Two Carriages/ Miracle/ My Wife
Wine/After the fire

Part 3
Kitchen/ A song from afar/ Melon bread/ What you need to know about fishing/ An ointment to lure fish with bait/ Sturgeon/ The dampness of the night/ Another mystery

Part 4
1880, Return to Krakow / Sunday Night / The Painter and the Fish / At Noon / Artaud / Beware / One More / At the Bird Market / His Bathrobe Pocket Full of Notes / March into Russia / Some Prose on Poetry / Poems / Letters / Young Girls

Part 5
The troublemaker/ swimming/ attic/ Margot/ looking at an old photo of my son/ five in the morning/ summer fog/ hummingbird/ outside/ downstream/ net/ almost

Part 6
A premonition / A quiet night / The night of the sparrow / Lemonade / The amazing diamond / Open your eyes / What the doctor said / Let's cry, teacher / Proposal / Cherish / Windfall / Unnecessary / Through the branches / Afterglow / Fragments of the last leaves


Uncollected Poems: Please Stop the Heroic Tales (1991)

Brass Ring/ The Beginning/ Tonight in the Pampas/ Those Days/ The Sunbather, To Herself/ No More Heroism, Please/ Adultery/ A Poem About My Birthday, July 2nd/ Return/ Arden, Thank You for the Egyptian Coin You Gave Me Today/ In the Trenches with Robert Graves/ The Man Outside/ Seed/ Betrayal/ Contact/ Something's Going On/ Summer in Sacramento/ Reaching Out/ Soda Crackers

Commentary: Raymond Carver's Poetry: Between Short Stories and Poetry

Perhaps his true talent lies in poetry.
Saying more by not saying anything is what Carver does best in his novels, and it is also one of the most important virtues of poetry.
Hwang In-chan (poet)

As a novelist he was drunk, but as a poet he was awake.
_Kim Yeon-su (novelist)

Since the 1980s, Raymond Carver, a representative novelist and poet of American literature, has been called 'the most influential novelist since Hemingway' and 'the American Chekhov', leading modernist literature, and his poetry collection 'All of Us' has been published.
He published short story collections such as “Please Be Quiet” and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” and in 1983, he captivated the hearts of critics and readers alike with the publication of his short story collection “Cathedral,” becoming a global literary star overnight.
It is rare for an author who has written only short stories and poetry throughout his life to be cited by many young writers around the world without hesitation as their favorite author, and it is widely known that Haruki Murakami, in particular, is a self-proclaimed ardent fan of his.
Although Carver is known as the "master of minimalism" for his unique and outstanding short stories, he entered literature through poetry, and after achieving great success with "Cathedral," he intended to live the rest of his life as a poet.
He devoted himself solely to writing poetry from 1983, and published three poetry collections, including Fire, Where Water Meets Other Water, and Ultramarine, before his death in 1988. His fourth poetry collection, A New Road to the Waterfall, a manuscript he had been organizing until the moment of his death, was published the year after his death.
And the book 『All of Us』 is a collection of five volumes of poetry, including the unpublished poetry collection 『Please Stop with the Heroic Stories』, which was published later.
"All of Us," a massive 640-page collection of poetry, is the first of Carver's poetry collections to be introduced in Korea, and can be said to be the definitive edition of Raymond Carver's poetry, containing the world of poetry he has striven to reach throughout his life.


This book is a treasure to be passed down to future generations.
No one but Raymond Carver could be so rich and concise, so complete.
_The New York Times

His clear gaze will break your heart.
_The Washington Post

The best poetry resonates with delicate, poignant scenes like short stories.
The lyrical reflections contained in his poetry are as immense a legacy as his incomparable novels.
_The Philadelphia Inquirer

A year after Raymond Carver's death, Salman Rushdie read a book of his poetry and wrote the following review:
“Read everything Carver has written.” Very good advice.

_The Irish Times

The feeling I get from reading Raymond Carver's poetry is exhilaration.
If you ask me if I'm happy, I am.
Carver's poetry is a far cry from the tedious cosmic mutterings of so many recent American poets.

_Time Literary Supplement


Master of realism and minimalism
Poetry as a story told by a cover

When discussing modern short stories in the history of literature, one name that cannot be left out is Raymond Carver.
It is no exaggeration to say that the aesthetics of the short story perfected by Carver have transcended the category of American literature and have firmly established themselves as one of the most important in the history of world literature.
'Speaking by not speaking', the minimalism that Carver demonstrated through his work has gone beyond a literary trend and has now become a major example of short story literature.
But even so, he did not limit his identity to that of a novelist and devoted himself to writing poetry until the moment of his death.
We can find out why his actions are not surprising in an interview conducted the year before he passed away.
He answered the question about the relationship between poetry and novels as follows:

“I write novels and poetry in the same way, and I think the effects are similar.
There is a compression of language and emotion that cannot be found in a full-length novel.
“I often say that short stories and poetry are closer than short stories and novels.”
In the same interview, he said that when he writes poetry, he does not base it on images, but that images arise from stories.
His poetry is completely indistinguishable from short stories.
If we were to find the most distinct difference between his poetry and other modern poetry, it would be the ‘story.’
Carver's declaration that he would "write in the language people actually use" holds true in poetry as well.
He wrote poetry that vividly captured the breath of life itself, using everyday, concrete language instead of abstract language, and using lived stories instead of sensible images.


If I were to say that there was a time when I was thirty-five,
Is there anyone you can trust?
At thirty-five, my heart was empty and withered!
For it to flow again
Five more years had to pass.
Before I leave my place by this river, I am here
I will spend the afternoon to my heart's content.
Loving the river makes my heart happy.
Going back to the source of the lecture
The work I love.
Loving everything that makes me happy.
_In "Where water meets other water"


The life Carver lived
Anguish, despair, and hope
A poem that is beautiful and heart-stirring without being embellished.

The 305 poems in this book can be divided as follows.
There are poems about art, poems about alcohol, poems about daily life and family, poems about nature, and poems that contain thoughts about death and beyond.
Just as almost all of the short stories he wrote throughout his life were autobiographical, many of his poems are also based on his experiences.
He uses his life experiences as the main fuel for his poetry, and what's interesting is that most of those experiences are failures.
A youth spent as an alcoholic, family strife, and even after achieving success as a writer, having to take responsibility for the choices he made in his youth.
Having lived for many years despite being given a terminal diagnosis in his later years, he had to constantly face his own death.
But isn't art truly ironic, as such life experiences gave his work a more powerful resonance?
Most of the works included in "All of Us" were written later than his last novel.
It contains insights gained from looking back on one's entire life.
It is truly moving to see someone who has experienced devastating failure, deep despair, but still never lost hope, discover beauty in the world, and eventually come to love life.
In particular, “In 2020,” which he wrote about a future that has not yet arrived after receiving a terminal diagnosis, resonates deeply with us who are living in the present, after 2020.


Friends, I love you, I really do.
And I was really lucky, I got some special benefits,
I hope to live long enough to become a witness.
Trust me, I am about you and us
The times we spent together here
I'll only talk about the brightest moments!
Something for the survivors to look forward to
It has to be there.
I'm getting old,
I'm losing everything and everyone.
_In "2020"

Cover also explored various forms without being bound by the traditional forms of poetry.
As we read "All of Us," we hear a variety of voices besides Carver's. The poem "You Don't Know What Love Is," which shines with a biting humor that makes us laugh, is a direct quote from the contemporary novelist and poet Charles Bukowski, and "Kafka's Clock," which contains existential anguish about repetitive labor, is a verse transcription of a letter from the novelist Franz Kafka.
He also loved Anton Chekhov's works and even transformed and quoted parts of Chekhov's novels into his own poems.
This can be said to be an original attempt to create a new work by passing someone else's language through the prism of a cover.

Above all, the most powerful imagery that Carver's poetry creates is the emotion and irony conveyed through unspoken words, which can also be felt in his novels.
As he said, the poetic images formed through characters and stories are maximized when read as a whole, not in parts.
The dramatic vibration that occurs when reading a work from beginning to end and finally reaching the last sentence is a unique poetic experience that only Carver's poetry can convey.

All of us, all of us, all of us
In our quest to save our immortal souls,
Some roads are more winding than others.
I can't get a handle on it.
We had a great time here
Sending.
But everything will be over soon
Show your true colors.
_From "In Switzerland"


◆ Recommendation

This book is a treasure to be passed down to future generations.
No one but Raymond Carver could be so rich and concise, so complete.

_The New York Times

His clear gaze will break your heart.

_The Washington Post

The best poetry resonates with delicate, poignant scenes like short stories.
The lyrical reflections contained in his poetry are as immense a legacy as his incomparable novels.

_The Philadelphia Inquirer

A year after Raymond Carver's death, Salman Rushdie read a book of his poetry and wrote the following review:
“Read everything Raymond Carver wrote.” Very good advice.

_The Irish Times

The feeling I get while reading Carver's poetry is exhilaration.
If you ask me if I'm happy, I am.
Carver's poetry is a far cry from the tedious cosmic mutterings of so many recent American poets.

_Time Literary Supplement

Carver's talent as a storyteller also shines through in his poetry.
Sometimes Carver's poems function like a single short story, compressed into all its elements: character, voice, space, and event.
Also, at times, Carver's work takes the form of lyrical poetry, showing the longing and sensitivity of a young man, but the concentration, calmness, and irony of his poetry are qualities that can only be acquired through experience.

_Los Angeles Times

Carver's poetry connects all our hearts like an invisible fishing line.

_San Francisco Chronicle

A moving historical heritage.
A treasure trove of exceptional poetry, weighty, nimble, and vividly alive.

Poetry Book Society

Best known for his short stories, Carver uses the same narrative magic in his poetry.
He speaks of family and past loves in everyday language, and draws insights into life and death through incidents such as fishing and hunting.
Anyone can read it and it's lovely.

_Publisher's Weekly