This Understated Land

Sidney Hall Jr. was born in 1951 and lived most of his life in southern New Hampshire. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Reed College, where he studied Greek and Latin Classics. He was the founder and owner of Hobblebush Books, as well as Hobblebush Design where he specialized in fine book design and production for Hobblebush and for other publishers. 

 

His poems have appeared in magazines and journals, in venues such as Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac and in a number of poetry anthologies. His book reviews also appeared in the Los Angeles Times Book Review. He was the editor of Nestled Here, a history of the town of Brookline, New Hampshire. He is the author of three books of poems, What We Will Give Each Other, Chebeague, and Fumbling in the Light, and a book of memoirs, Small Town Tales, a collection of his newspaper columns.

"For decades no one in this granite state of New Hampshire has done more for its poetry, figuratively, literally and physically, than Sidney Hall, poet and founder of Hobblebush Books.

     "For any poet, especially one facing the inevitabilities of ALS, little can be as daunting as compiling one’s collected poems, which sit unvarnished on the page against the harsh light of time—a reminder  how small we all are in this vast universe.  And yet poet Sid Hall faces this squarely with head up and makes it come together in This Understated Land. His training as a classical scholar and his lifetime of dedication to and about the published word are evident everywhere in this book."  —Rodger Martin

 

 

"A book that contains the tools and tractors and towing chains of a life, and an imagination with a glacier’s power to roll up an entire landscape and remake it, should weigh a ton. Somehow This Understated Land, so quietly attentive, distilled into air, water, light, and music, floats us. The voice puts me in mind of James Wright’s, given a sense of humor, and Galway Kinnell’s, but spoken inside a Joseph Cornell box.

     "In narrative poems, slender lyrics, translations from Greek and Latin, and the great elegiac sequence 'Tordzus,' Sid Hall moves between past and present and time to come with the grace of one who has been to finishing school with all nine Muses. When I walk with this book on my head from one end of the room to the other, I feel my eyes held steady on a human scale, and my spine aligned with eternal things. 'Oh what, what is this strange balancing I feel now, [. . .] like a white pole hovering over a high wire, without an acrobat.'” —Henry Walters

 

 

"My favorite poems are 'Spring, Sestius!' and 'Uncle Elwood.' It’s pleasing to see a balance between classical allusion and typical Yankee skepticism. (On What We Will Give Each Other) —Maxine Kumin

 

 

"These poems are disciplined, clear-eyed and clear-headed like their Greek, Latin and Chinese forebears. Sidney Hall achieves a kind of sophisticated simplicity that is rare among his contemporaries. Call him a neoclassicist seasoned by the spirits of Zen and Taoism—his poems are revelations, beautiful and true. (On What We Will Give Each Other) —Sam Hamill

6" x 9", 400 pages

Hardcover with Dust Jacket

ISBN: 978-1-939449-09-2

Retail Price: $30.00