Familiar to listeners of National Public Radio, David Budbill is beloved by legions for straightforward poems dispatched from his hermitage on Judevine Mountain. Inspired by classical Chinese hermit poets, he follows tradition but cannot escape the complications and struggles of a modern solitary existence. Loneliness, aging and political outrage are addressed in poems that value honesty and simplicity and deplore pretension. For more than three decades, David Budbill has lived on a remote mountain in northern Vermont writing poems, reading Chinese classics, tending to his garden and, of course, working on his website. Budbill has been featured more than any other author on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac.
"David Budbill is a no-nonsense free-range sage who celebrates tomatoes in September, the whistle of a woodcock and sweet black tea and ancient Chinese poems." --New York Times "Budbill both informs and moves. He is, in short, a delight and a comfort."--Wendell Berry " Budbill] can be hilarious, as when he gripes, 'What good is my humility / when I am / stuck / in this obscurity?'"--Booklist, starred review "His terse, epigrammatic lyrics are a lilting mirror of classical Chinese poetry."--The Wichita Eagle David Budbill continues his popular poetic ruminations on life in remote New England--an outward survey of a forested mountain and an introspection of self-reliance, anonymity, and the creative life. Inspired by classical Chinese and Japanese poets, Budbill contemplates the seasons, ambition, his questionable desire for fame and fortune, and simple, focused contentment: "Weed the beans. Pick the peas." "Out in the Woods" The only time I'm really free is when I'm out in the woods cutting firewood, stacking brush, clearing trails. Just the chain saw, the dog and me. Heave and groan, sweat and ache. Work until I can't stand it anymore. Take a break. Sit on the needle-strewn ground up against a big pine tree, drink some water, stare out through the woods, pet the dog. Stretch out on the ground, take a nap, dog's head on my lap. Ah, this would be the time and place and way to die. David Budbill is the author of poems, plays, essays, speeches, and book reviews. He has also served as a commentator on NPR's All Things Considered. He lives in the mountains of northern Vermont where he tends his garden and website.
In this collection of 16 essays, poets discuss psychiatric treatment and their work. Poets on Prozac shatters the notion that madness fuels creativity by giving voice to contemporary poets who have battled myriad psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance abuse. The sixteen essays collected here address many provocative questions: Does emotional distress inspire great work? Is artistry enhanced or diminished by mental illness? What effect does substance abuse have on esthetic vision? Do psychoactive medications impinge on ingenuity? Can treatment enhance inherent talents, or does relieving emotional pain shut off the creative process? Featuring examples of each contributor’s poetry before, during, and after treatment, this original and thoughtful collection finally puts to rest the idea that a tortured soul is one’s finest muse. Honorable Mention, 2008 PROSE Award for Best Book in Psychology. “A fascinating collection of 16 essays, as insightful as they are compulsively readable. Each is honest and sharply written, covering a range of issues (depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, psychosis, substance abuse or, in acutely deadpan Andrew Hudgins’s case, “tics, twitches, allergies, tooth-grinding, acid reflux, migraines . . . and shingles”) along with treatment methods, incorporating personal anecdotes and excerpts from poems and journals. . . . Anyone affected by mental illness or intrigued by the question of its role in the arts should find this volume absorbing.” —Publishers Weekly “Berlin has done a marvelous job of showing us how ordinary poets are; the selected poets have shown us that mental illness shares with other experiences a capacity to reveal our humanity.” —Metapsychology
"In these poems Judevine Mountain is a man of contradictions: of solitude and loneliness, contentment and restlessness, generosity and envy. For Judevine Mountain - this most settled of poets - nothing is ever settled, solved, or understood."--BOOK JACKET.
A "tale of the tribe" (Ezra Pound's phrase for his own longer work), Park Songs is set during a single day in a down-and-out Midwestern city park where people from all walks of life gather. In this small green space amidst a great gray city, the park provides a refuge for its caretaker (and resident poet), street preachers, retirees, moms, hustlers, and teenagers. Interspersed with blues songs, the community speaks through poetic monologues and conversations, while the homeless provide the introductory chorus—and all of their voices become one great epic tale of comedy and tragedy. Full of unexpected humor, hard-won wisdom, righteous (but sometimes misplaced) anger, and sly tenderness, their stories show us how people learn to live with mistakes and make connections in an antisocial world. As the poem/play engages us in their pain and joy—and the goofy delight of being human—it makes a quietly soulful statement about acceptance and community in our lives. David Budbill has worked as a carpenter's apprentice, short order cook, day laborer, and occasional commentator on NPR's All Thing Considered. His poems can often be heard on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac and his books include the best-selling Happy Life (Copper Canyon Press) and Judevine, a collection of narrative poems that forms the basis for the play Judevine, which has been performed in twenty-two states. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Budbill now lives in the mountains of northern Vermont. R. C. Irwin, whose absurdist and nostalgic work provides the set design for Park Songs, teaches at San Francisco City College.
This posthumous novel from acclaimed author David Budbill tells the story of The Man Who Lives Alone in the Mountains. As winter descends on his idyllic home, the man encounters a bird with a broken wing, sending him into a poetic and profound meditation on solitude, friendship, and the unstoppable march of time. In the deep woods of Vermont, The Man Who Lives Alone in the Mountains exists in solitude and simplicity. His days are spent caring for his garden and observing the birds and creatures that visit his home. His nights are spent in a contemplative world of music, poetry, letter writing, and, most importantly, bird watching. As November arrives and The Man prepares for winter, he notices an injured bird, shiny and black, holding his own among bullying blue jays. He is drawn to the bird’s spirit of survival and freedom and names it Broken Wing. Since his only neighbors are a couple of hostile brothers and their bird-hunting cat, Broken Wing becomes a source of inspiration—and a friend. As fall changes to winter and back to spring, The Man’s dreams of Broken Wing give way to meditations on the peaks and valleys of life, the passage of time, and the poetry of nature.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.
