Clayfeld Holds On
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Bob Pack’s lnvocation to Clayfeld
Clayfeld’s Encounter by the Sea
Clayfeld Encompasses a Paradox
Clayfeld Beholds a Miracle
Clayfeld Attends a Seder
Clayfeld Admonishes the Bard
Clayfeld Defines Sublimity
Clayfeld Goes Birding
A Blue Heron Appears to Clayfeld
Clayfeld’s Kidney
Clayfeld Observes a Herd of Elk
Clayfeld Organizes His Jokes
Confronting Clayfeld
Clayfeld among the Fireflies
Clayfeld Takes Flight
Clayfeld Listens to the Aspens
Paean for a Turtle
Clayfeld Encircled
Clayfeld Unresolved
Clayfeld’s Vampire Fantasy
Clayfeld on Jury Duty
Clayfeld Throws His Hat into the Ring
Clayfeld’s Reversal
Clayfeld Reading by the Fire
Clayfeld Grieves for Annie
Clayfeld’s Inheritance
Clayfeld Addresses His Father
Drifting and Gliding
Clayfeld’s Interpretation
Clayfeld Thinks about Women
Clayfeld’s Pride
Clayfeld Bedeviled
Clayfeld’s “Cogito”
Clayfeld’s Inspiration
Clayfeld Contends with Entropy
Star-Crossed Clayfeld
Clayfeld in the Rain
Clayfeld’s Injury
Humming in the Air
Clayfeld Embellishes a Willow Tree
Clayfeld’s Farewell Epistle to Bob Pack
Epilogue: Swan River in October
Epilogue: Abundance
Clayfeld’s Encounter by the Sea
Clayfeld Encompasses a Paradox
Clayfeld Beholds a Miracle
Clayfeld Attends a Seder
Clayfeld Admonishes the Bard
Clayfeld Defines Sublimity
Clayfeld Goes Birding
A Blue Heron Appears to Clayfeld
Clayfeld’s Kidney
Clayfeld Observes a Herd of Elk
Clayfeld Organizes His Jokes
Confronting Clayfeld
Clayfeld among the Fireflies
Clayfeld Takes Flight
Clayfeld Listens to the Aspens
Paean for a Turtle
Clayfeld Encircled
Clayfeld Unresolved
Clayfeld’s Vampire Fantasy
Clayfeld on Jury Duty
Clayfeld Throws His Hat into the Ring
Clayfeld’s Reversal
Clayfeld Reading by the Fire
Clayfeld Grieves for Annie
Clayfeld’s Inheritance
Clayfeld Addresses His Father
Drifting and Gliding
Clayfeld’s Interpretation
Clayfeld Thinks about Women
Clayfeld’s Pride
Clayfeld Bedeviled
Clayfeld’s “Cogito”
Clayfeld’s Inspiration
Clayfeld Contends with Entropy
Star-Crossed Clayfeld
Clayfeld in the Rain
Clayfeld’s Injury
Humming in the Air
Clayfeld Embellishes a Willow Tree
Clayfeld’s Farewell Epistle to Bob Pack
Epilogue: Swan River in October
Epilogue: Abundance
Review Quotes
Erica Jong
"Robert Pack is one of the most important poets of our epoch. In a career that exceeds fifty years he has explored his life and the lives of people in our society with unparalleled intelligence and beauty. His new book Clayfeld Holds On is remarkable for its exuberance, profundity, and sheer joy. He is one of the poets by whom our culture will be known in times to come."
Paul Mariani, author of Gerard Manley Hopkins: A Life
"In his stunning, brilliant new collection, Clayfeld Holds On, the octogenarian Robert Pack revisits the lamp-lit chambers of his alter ego, Clayfeld (Old Adam) some thirty years on. These poems are hard-won, informed with a rare wit, compendium of knowledge, and deep intelligence, by turns heartbreaking, full of wisdom and a Swiftian sense of the folly of human endeavor, and funny as hell. And then there are ghosts that recline at the table of Pack’s symposium—Freud, Job, Shakespeare, Mozart, Frost and Stevens among them—nudging him on to tell one more story, while there is still time."
Jay Parini, author of The Art of Subtraction: New and Selected Poems
"Clayfeld Holds On is a superb volume of late poems by Robert Pack, a singular voice in American poetry. Clayfeld is Pack’s alter-ego, raging against the dying of the light, walking down paths retaken with renewed gusto. The poet’s subtle cadences draw the reader forward through narratives of recovery toward self-discoveries that are world-discoveries as well. Clayfeld Holds On is a satisfying and resonant collection, a vision of reality that is gripping and profound."
Julia Alvarez, author of How the García Girls Lost Their Accents
"Robert Pack writes in a compassionate voice, full of humor and sorrow for all the losses, and yet always ready to take on more."
John Elder, author of Reading the Mountains of Home
"There are great pleasures in reading Robert Pack’s Clayfeld Holds On. Pack's new collection of poems is a culminating achievement by this deeply serious and at the same time irrepressibly playful writer."
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