Come Closer and Listen: New Poems

Charles Simic did it again. His ironic, compassionate, and peculiar (strange sometimes) view of human affairs is sharper than ever in this beautiful book. But this time there is also a certain anger, a certain impatience with the world and with his life. After all, our world is going awry and Simic’s life is coming to and end. This coincidence (a sad one) permeates this book, an elegy of sorts.“Is Charles Simic afraid of death?,” he asks in one of the last poems of this slim book.. “Yes, Charles Simic fears death,” he replies. “Does he pray to the Lord above?” “No, he fools around with his wife.” “His conscience, does it bother him much?” “It drops in for a chat now and then.” "Is he ready to meet his Maker?" "As much as a squirrel crossing the road."Charles Simic knows well that humanity weeps in the dark. His poetry, I think, is a quiet protest against a God that doesn’t bother simply because It doesn’t exist.