Jane Kenyon had a virtually faultless ear. She was an exquisite master of the art of poetry. Wendell Berry
Published twenty-five years after her untimely death,The Best Poems of Jane Kenyonpresents the essential work of one of Americas most cherished poetscelebrated for her tenacity, spirit, and grace. In their inquisitive explorations and direct language, Jane Kenyons poems disclose a quiet certainty in the natural world and a lifelong dialogue with her faith and her questioning of it. As a crucial aspect of these beloved poems of companionship, she confronts her struggle with severe depression on its own stark terms. Selected by Kenyons husband, Donald Hall, just before his death in 2018,The Best Poems of Jane Kenyoncollects work from across a life and career that will be, as she writes in one poem, simply lasting.
Jane Kenyon(19471995) published four collections of poetry during her lifetime:
From Room to Room,
The Boat of Quiet Hours,
Let Evening Come, and
Constance. Her
Collected Poemswas published in 2005.
Amidst all of Jane Kenyons unyielding and absolute clarity . . . its easy to forget she was a visionary too, a mystic. . . . These poems seem to orbit a nucleus of ecstatic awareness, of self-surrender. . . . The systems Kenyon creates here feel open, sweeping, and endless, like water bending over a horizon. Kaveh Akbar
The poems of Jane Kenyon are lodestars. I can think of no better way to navigate life than to keep her work close, as I have always done. Its thrilling to now have this great parting gift from Donald Hallhis loving, intimate, discerning selection of the best of her poems. Dani Shapiro
![The Best Poems of Jane Kenyon: Poems [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/2/9/6/2_4318899.jpg "The Best Poems of Jane Kenyon: Poems [Paperback]")