Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems by Jim Carroll

Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems Reviews

• 
  Jessica

  This is the book that made me fall in love with poetry, and that's BIG, man. When I was 14, 15, 16, I thought this was a book of overwhelming genius, talent, creativity, insanity. How could anyone not love this stuff-it was sooo different.
  
  In hindsight, however, I've found that it takes a certain type of person to enjoy Carroll's poetry. Academics, for the most part, seem to have ignored him; he's very similar to ee cummings, minus the eloquence. But he's a NYC poet writing about heroin, rock n roll, pain, heartache, love--seriously, why wouldn't academics love him? I honestly don't know. Maybe the same reason most of them ignore Bukowski.
  
  On the other side of the coin, he may be too complex for the everyday reader of poetry. He plays with big ideas, and can be tricky in his use of language. Maybe not tricky, maybe clouded? ambigious? overly figurative? This is probably why his work never goes over well in my creative writing class. what the hell is this guy trying to say? why doesn't he just say what he means????
  
  But it's also why I love him. So here is my favorite poem, from pg 66, the first poem I ever memorized:
  
  "Little Ode on St Anne's Day"
  
  You're growing up
  and rain sort of remains
  on the branches of a tree
  that will someday rule the earth.
  
  and that's good
  that there's rain
  it clears the month
  of your sorry rainbow expressions
  
  and clears the streets
  of the silent armies...
  
  so we can dance
• 
  Dan

  I first learned of Jim Carroll while watching the Ron Mann documentary Poetry in Motion. The film ended with Carroll reading "Just Visiting," a great prose poem from his
  The Book of Nods. Fear of Dreaming includes selections from that book, and from his earlier poetic work
  Living at the Movies.
  
  Free verse in which the poet employs strong images to represent his experiences of heroin (needles and veins), Catholicism (saints and sacred objects, feast days), New York (the subways, the streets, the nights), Paris (
  Arthur Rimbaud,
  Charles Baudelaire). Flora (the rose, the tree, the leaf) and nightmare fauna (snakes, dragons, insects).
  
  Acquired Feb 26, 2004
  Attic Books, London, Ontario
• 
  lola berry-white x

  the poet of a LIFETIME, the 🍎🍎🍎 of my 👁️👁️👁️...... Oh jim. you were from another world. the kind of genius that you think aliens must have implanted in him for an experiment but the kind of rawness that makes you think that hes cut himself and just bled all over the pages..... Another fucking world i am telling you
• 
  Adam

  This is a collection of poems and short stories by Jim Carroll. The poems are free in form and dream like in that they wander from line to line in a hallucinatory sort of way. It is hard to make sense of the scenes that are depicted in some of them, but that, in a way, adds to their charm. The poems take the reader to new places and experiences, all tinged with the spirit of New York City.
  
  An interesting though difficult read.
• 
  Dan

  I read this book after seeing the movie "The Basketball Diaries". My interest was piqued and I went out and purchased. Love Carrol's style and flow. It was gritty,raw and real. If you aren't sure if you like poetry/don't know where to start building your poetry collection, this book is a good place to start.
• 
  Alfred

  Yes, it is a difficult reading. I bet it is not because our mind is too narrow to comprehend it. It's because there is little meaning behind these words.
  I'm not sure how some people think that could possibly be a sign of great depths...
  
• 
  R.Joseph

  Poetry saturated with variance! Jim Carroll is like street cardboard because many people will just ignore it or complain about it, while others like me need it to survive!
• 
  Mike

  A series of lucid hallucinations from Uptown's finest.
• 
  Lily

  Can I give something 0 stars? Half of the poems were nonsensical. I sure as hell didn’t understand them. Was that the intention? I’m not sure. Either way, I skimmed through the latter of this book.
• 
  clive

  unreasonably horny
• 
  Tom Marshall

  ###############################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################
• 
  Jacob Nelson

  it's amazing.
• 
  Sara Comuzzo

  una raccolta di poesie sublime.
  che racconta la strada, amici morti, amici a cui hanno sparato. amici nel giro della droga, lo stesso poeta nel giro della droga. una serie di visioni, variazioni estive, variazioni newyorkesi come le definisce lui stesso.
  uno stile potente, che si riduce all'osso, che fa fotografie e te le pianta davanti.
  un grande poeta, poco conosciuto ed è un peccato.
  a chi voglia saperne di più, consiglio il film Ritorno dal Nulla con Di Caprio, biografia di Jim Carroll.
  
  un pezzo all'interno di questa silloge:
  
  Alcuni confidano che il lupo
  
  che hanno allevato dalla nascita
  
  non si rivolti contro di loro.
  
  Alcuni mettono la propria vita
  
  in mani le cui dita
  
  sono cinque silenziosi coltelli.
  
  Alcuni non rammenteranno
  
  niente, o moriranno
  
  di quel ricordo.
• 
  Kitap

  This is one of the many books I purchased when I was in college or grad school, hauled from one side of the country to another, got rid of in one book purge or another, and checked out from the library before finally reading it. And that makes some sense in hindsight. Most of these poems simply did not speak to me; if anything they reminded me of my own tortured adolescent attempts at poetry, putting words together in a way that seemed provocatively "poetic" but without really saying anything of substance or even beauty. There were a few semiprecious stones (I can't bring myself to say gems and remain honest) in this collection, most of which comprised some of the essays, works of short fiction, and poems from Carroll's "middle period."
• 
  Candice

  "Richard Brautigan,
  I don't care who you are fucking
  in your clean california air
  
  I just don't care
  
  though mine are more beautiful anyway
  (though more complex perhaps)
  
  and we have white flowers too
  right over our window on 10th St.
  like hands that mark tiny x's
  across infinity day by day"
  
  
• 
  Aaron

  This book is worth it for the poem Love Story.
• 
  april violet

  A few of the poems and short stories are a little flat, but otherwise I dig it. I'm keen on the New York City Variations.
• 
  Wes Young

  Although it sounds improbable, Carroll's music and lyrics are far better than his poetry.
• 
  Eileen Huang

  Honestly, Jim Carroll is one of my all-time favourite poets.
• 
  Jenn

  jim carroll delivers!
• 
  Shhhtevie St. Evie

  There is just something about the way Carroll strings words along that makes his poetry haunting enough to linger in your mind even after the book is closed.
• 
  Cheryl

  Favorite sections: Living at the Movies; Poems 1973-1985
  
• 
  Stevie

  I love Jim Carroll but I have a difficult time reading poetry. I was very excited about this book but unfortunately I think I am not open minded enough to understand, as much as I want to.
• 
  Ichor

  My favourite poet, my favourite poetry book.
• 
  Sarah

  I liked the poems and short stories it was filled with. I couldn't relate to most of it but some of the words inspired me to write a bit of my own. Some of them are worth reading.
• 
  Megan

  stunning...
• 
  Laura

  This is my favorite collection of poetry.