The Singing

The Singing is a collection of poems by C. K. Williams, his first book of poetry after Repair, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Written in the long, flowing lines for which he was known, the poems take up the concerns of a poet's later years: the deaths of friends, the pleasure of grandchildren, memories of childhood that grow fainter with time and the confusing news of the day. Several poems turn a single object into a meditation, as when a Rembrandt self-portrait prompts a portrait of himself, or a museum anatomical figure leads him to reflect on what all people share. Others carry a sharper public edge, as he considers war and the way powerful people justify the harm they cause. The voice throughout is direct, searching and morally serious, attentive both to ordinary moments and to large questions about how to live. It won the 2003 National Book Award for Poetry.