{"id":1269,"date":"2025-12-01T11:47:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/?post_type=product&#038;p=1269"},"modified":"2025-12-01T11:49:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T17:49:24","slug":"all-these-things-i-will-give-to-you","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/product\/all-these-things-i-will-give-to-you","title":{"rendered":"All These Things I Will Give to You"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>by Robert Clinton<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<style>\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t#tab_container_1267 {\r\n\toverflow:hidden;\r\n\tdisplay:block;\r\n\twidth:100%;\r\n\tborder:0px solid #ddd;\r\n\tmargin-bottom:30px;\r\n\t}\r\n\r\n#tab_container_1267 .tab-content{\r\n\tpadding:20px;\r\n\tborder: 1px solid #e6e2cc !important;\r\n\tmargin-top: 0px;\r\n\tbackground-color:#fffbe5 !important;\r\n\tcolor: #000000 !important;\r\n\tfont-size:16px !important;\r\n\tfont-family: Open Sans !important;\r\n\t\r\n\t\tborder: 1px solid #e6e2cc !important;\r\n\t}\r\n#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs {\r\n    border-bottom: 0px solid #ddd;\r\n}\r\n#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li.active > a, #tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li.active > a:hover, #tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li.active > a:focus {\r\n\tcolor: #000000 !important;\r\n\tcursor: default;\r\n\tbackground-color: #fffbe5 !important;\r\n\tborder: 1px solid #e6e2cc !important;\r\n}\r\n\r\n#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li > a {\r\n    margin-right: 0px !important; 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\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n#tab_container_1267 .tab-content{\r\noverflow:hidden !important;\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n@media (min-width: 769px) {\r\n\r\n\t#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li{\r\n\t\tfloat:left !important ;\r\n\t\t\t\tmargin-right:-1px !important;\r\n\t\t\t\t\t}\r\n\t#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs{\r\n\t\tfloat:none !important;\r\n\t\tmargin:0px !important;\r\n\t}\r\n\r\n\t#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li {\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t}\r\n\t#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav{\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n@media (max-width: 768px) {\r\n\t#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li {\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t}\r\n\t#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav{\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n}\r\n\r\n\r\n\t.wpsm_nav-tabs li:before{\r\n\t\tdisplay:none !important;\r\n\t}\r\n\r\n\t@media (max-width: 768px) {\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t.wpsm_nav-tabs{\r\n\t\t\tmargin-left:0px !important;\r\n\t\t\tmargin-right:0px !important; \r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t\t#tab_container_1267 .wpsm_nav-tabs > li{\r\n\t\t\tfloat:none !important;\r\n\t\t}\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t}\t\t\t\t<\/style>\r\n\t\t\t\t<div id=\"tab_container_1267\" >\r\n\t \r\n\t\t\t\t\t<ul class=\"wpsm_nav wpsm_nav-tabs\" role=\"tablist\" id=\"myTab_1267\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li role=\"presentation\"  class=\"active\"  onclick=\"do_resize()\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#tabs_desc_1267_1\" aria-controls=\"tabs_desc_1267_1\" role=\"tab\" data-toggle=\"tab\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Overview<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<li role=\"presentation\"  onclick=\"do_resize()\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"#tabs_desc_1267_2\" aria-controls=\"tabs_desc_1267_2\" role=\"tab\" data-toggle=\"tab\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span>Excerpt<\/span>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/li>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/ul>\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\t  <!-- Tab panes -->\r\n\t\t\t\t\t  <div class=\"tab-content\" id=\"tab-content_1267\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div role=\"tabpanel\" class=\"tab-pane  in active \" id=\"tabs_desc_1267_1\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"sm_text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">Prophetic, farseeing, Robert Clinton has traveled the wilderness and returns with what he has witnessed. The poems in <em>All These Things I Will Give to You<\/em> seem nearly boundless, from the clans of the 30,000-year-old fires wherein the poet declares, \u201cI want to touch the holy bear skull,\u201d to the more contemporary and troublesome \u201cI wonder if you\u2019d still remember\/the silver and green steel thermos.\u201d These are passionate and exquisitely hewn poems, with image and voice at work together in what seem to be effortless constructions. In the digital age of poetry\u2019s devaluation, Clinton\u2019s rich and metaphorically complex work strives even at its most fantastical to touch the holy bear skull, which is poetry itself\u2014a sacred vessel where each phrase makes its own shimmering world.<\/span><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u2018The poems in Robert Clinton\u2019s <em>All These Things I Will Give to You<\/em> accumulate into metaphysics of the human condition. With mind-blowing ease, Clinton\u2019s spirited sensibility locates within uncertainty a life affirming, heartwarming, enriching certainty, a finely tuned mindfulness that models the human spirit--the courage to go head to head with want and wanting, sometimes to prevail, sometimes simply to hold one\u2019s own, sometimes to live to fight another day, the poems driven not by this outcome or that but by their drive to engage life on their own terms, to breathe life into the waiting air\u2014all along an underlying dreamlike essence. In language and imagery, Clinton introduces an otherworld quality as he crosses from one dimension into another. Here, two examples of this surreality\u2014the first in-your-face unreal: \u201ca caterpillar\u2026 at once began spinning its cocoon from filaments of my flesh;\u201d the second example, subtly understated: \u201cThe mime bathes in no water When he\u2019s finished he walks away, leaving wet footprints on the sidewalk.\u201d Take the opportunity to consider the mechanics of Robert Clinton\u2019s startling structuring of language, of which there are many examples In <em>All These Things I Will Give to You<\/em>.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\" style=\"text-align: right\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u2014Allen Brafman, author of <em>Wherever I Look I Am Never There<\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u2018Robert Clinton\u2019s imagination glints like a table saw. He builds boxes of words that contain rocks and rapids, jewelry and insects, love and divorce, a man\u2019s polnt of view and a woman\u2019s. His vision is dark, his \u201csolitary pioneering\u201d original and inexhaustible, assembling amazing instances of black: \u201cblack sleeves of a cherry tree,\u201d \u201cblack as a wedding ring,\u201d \u201cblack as cats asleep, black as butter.\u201d He describes nature so that you remember the feel of it yourself, \u201cthe rocks have a sliding fur.\u201d His water is \u201ciron\u201d and \u201cplated.\u201d The poems are at once deadly serious and hilarious. \u201cShe checks in her bag for the bag with the bags\/of her bags.\u201d He writes about what is \u201csuperior to happiness.\u201d And he achieves it. Immortality. I love his love poems. \u201dThermos,\u201d silver and green, leaving it behind where the canoe was tied, standing upright in the tree roots \u201clike a youth waiting for a train,\u201d and symbolizing his, their, lost love. In \u201cI couldn\u2019t think\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I noticed her\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0so hard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0she had<\/span>\r\n<span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 to sit down<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u2018And after she \u201cquit\u201d him:<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 I wished her no<\/span>\r\n<span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 happiness\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I cherished her<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u2018<em>All These Things I will Give to You<\/em> he gives with \u201cmateless fingers.\u201d The gift of a lifetime. I am thrilled to put my name on this book.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p class=\"sm_text\" style=\"text-align: right\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\">\u2014Jill Hoffman, founding editor, <em>Mudfish<\/em>; author of <em>Kimono with Young Girl Sleeves<\/em><\/span><\/p>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, palatino, serif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1268\" src=\"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Robert-Clinton-headshot.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Clinton\" width=\"193\" height=\"250\" \/><span class=\"sm_text\"><strong>Robert Clinton<\/strong> has an MFA from Goddard College, and has twice been a Fellow at MacDowell. Sarabande Books published his collection <em>Taking Eden<\/em>. His second book, <em>Wasteland Honey<\/em>, was published by Circling Rivers Press in 2021. He won the Yeats Prize from the W. B. Yeats Society of New York in 2022. His poems have appeared in <em>Hanging Loose, Mudfish<\/em> and <em>Antioch Review<\/em>, among others. He lives in Massachusetts. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div role=\"tabpanel\" class=\"tab-pane \" id=\"tabs_desc_1267_2\">\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<P><strong>What I\u2019m Looking For<\/strong><\/P>\r\n<P>If I met you in sidewalk sunlight, and with one word <BR>\r\nyou dismantled my reason: your intimate angry voice,<BR>\r\nyour face alert to trespass so no one mistakes your<BR>\r\nsmile, your body turned smooth on a starlight lathe,<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nif I met you and you were balanced, carrying nothing <BR>\r\nbut your own occurrence, if your eyes were a blue <BR>\r\nbeyond repentance, and all this in one quarter of an <BR>\r\ninstant befell us, by the chance of our crossing wits, <BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nif I met you and your superior senselessness stunned <BR>\r\nmy own measures of nonsense, but you turned away<BR>\r\nrunning \u2013 would you, over your shoulder, call to me? <BR>\r\nYou would. You\u2019d say \u201cFind my house. It\u2019s in the world.\u201d<\/P>\r\n\r\n<P>&nbsp;<\/P>\r\n<hr>\r\n<P>&nbsp;<\/P>\r\n\r\n      <P><strong>Crow<\/strong><\/P>\r\n<P>He squats in the frame<BR>\r\nof a half-built sycamore tree<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nWalks sideways <BR>\r\nalong the tarpaper ridge<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nIn the road he unties <BR>\r\nthe rabbit\u2019s reed tendons<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHe slaps the manikin in corn<BR>\r\nwith a wing, and again<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nIn a dream a white crow <BR>\r\nflies beside him\u2014an instant<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHe hushes the children <BR>\r\nwho would teach him to speak <BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nWith his companions, he<BR>\r\ncheats his companions<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nRobed in black snow,<BR>\r\neyes closed, he studies the land<\/P>\r\n\r\n<P>&nbsp;<\/P>\r\n<hr>\r\n<P>&nbsp;<\/P>\r\n\r\n      <P><strong>Practical Baby<\/strong><\/P>\r\n<P>You must wax his ears and dial them in. <BR>\r\nYou make him sit, and you stand behind.<BR>\r\nYou noise a bumblebee at each ear which<BR>\r\nmotivates escapements in the ear holes <BR>\r\nallowing plenums on each side to pulse. <BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHis eyeballs must be shucked and cabled.<BR>\r\nYou leave them overnight in oily eyeball bath, <BR>\r\nthen pupils pinged with an awl, not hurting,<BR>\r\nwhich releases the seeds of lights and colors.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nHis nose is there, with its fractures. Just get <BR>\r\nthe wadding out and sneeze gunpowder.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nFind the wind-up for his voice, a sounding spray<BR>\r\nof words and song and argument: far down his<BR>\r\nthroat a tickle to his vocal folds with feathers<BR>\r\ndeftly wielded is sufficient to provoke his tongue.<BR>\r\n<BR>\r\nInside he makes and tunes the rest himself:<BR>\r\nthe way to his stomach is, despite appearances,<BR>\r\na garden. Transparent figures come to animate<BR>\r\nthe dark behind his brow. Now flame-like he<BR>\r\nwill stand upright, and sphinx-like he will think.<\/P>\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t\t \r\n\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n <script>\r\n\t\tjQuery(function () {\r\n\t\t\tjQuery('#myTab_1267 a:first').tab('show')\r\n\t\t});\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(function(){\r\n\t\t\tvar b=\"fadeIn\";\r\n\t\t\tvar c;\r\n\t\t\tvar a;\r\n\t\t\td(jQuery(\"#myTab_1267 a\"),jQuery(\"#tab-content_1267\"));function d(e,f,g){\r\n\t\t\t\te.click(function(i){\r\n\t\t\t\t\ti.preventDefault();\r\n\t\t\t\t\tjQuery(this).tab(\"show\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\tvar h=jQuery(this).data(\"easein\");\r\n\t\t\t\t\tif(c){c.removeClass(a);}\r\n\t\t\t\t\tif(h){f.find(\"div.active\").addClass(\"animated \"+h);a=h;}\r\n\t\t\t\t\telse{if(g){f.find(\"div.active\").addClass(\"animated \"+g);a=g;}else{f.find(\"div.active\").addClass(\"animated \"+b);a=b;}}c=f.find(\"div.active\");\r\n\t\t\t\t});\r\n\t\t\t}\r\n\t\t});\r\n\t\t\r\n\r\n\t\tfunction do_resize(){\r\n\r\n\t\t\tvar width=jQuery( '.tab-content .tab-pane iframe' ).width();\r\n\t\t\tvar height=jQuery( '.tab-content .tab-pane iframe' ).height();\r\n\r\n\t\t\tvar toggleSize = true;\r\n\t\t\tjQuery('iframe').animate({\r\n\t\t\t    width: toggleSize ? width : 640,\r\n\t\t\t    height: toggleSize ? height : 360\r\n\t\t\t  }, 250);\r\n\r\n\t\t\t  toggleSize = !toggleSize;\r\n\t\t}\r\n\r\n\r\n\t<\/script>\r\n\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Robert Clinton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1270,"template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[28],"product_tag":[81],"class_list":{"0":"post-1269","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-poetry","7":"product_tag-robert-clinton","9":"first","10":"instock","11":"shipping-taxable","12":"purchasable","13":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1269"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rainmountainpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}