From Publishers Weekly
Most lyric poetry turns and tumbles in the bittersweet pathos of desire; the human heart and its fantasies have been Pinsky's subject for many years. His last book, History of My Heart , tried to locate the source of desire in autobiography. The new volume, a kind of sequel, largely avoids personal subject matter in order to explore the manifestations of desire in religious and mythological stories, from those of the Hindu gods Shiva and Parvati to Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar and--in a stunning prose piece, "Jesus and Isolt"--the fabled lovers Tristram and Isolt. One could call his subject desire in the abstract; the poet addresses "The old conspiracy of gain and pleasure / Flowering in the mind greedily to build the world / And break it." His writing is lush as Pinsky tries to remove himself from the Augustan mode of his earlier work--sentences sprawl over tercets and shift direction suddenly. This may be his best book; it is certainly his best collection of lyric poetry. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The elegantly crafted poems in Pinsky's accomplished fourth collection take as their theme the quenchless desires of the heart, "the legendary muscle that wants and grieves,/ the organ of attachment, the pump of thrills/ and troubles." In full command of his art and vision, Pinsky uses religion and myth to explore the connection between language and being and the often tragic dimensions of human want. His poetry has a magisterial, chill beauty that ironically accentuates the vast hunger of need in us all. Like the "muttering gods" who in one poem "drink up/lovecries and memorized Chaucer, lines from movies/ and songs hoarded in mortmain," Pinsky draws from a tremendous store of language, both common and erudite. Here is a poet unafraid to probe uncomfortable recesses of experience, or risk thinking large. Recommended for poetry collections.- Christine Stenstrom, New York Law Sch. Lib.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review
"The Want Bone is about the conflicting and overlapping metaphysics of Judaism and Christianity, about history as an invisible presence, about the creative and destructive potential of the imagination, about the drives and powers that shape us and that we in turn transfigure into the emblems and artifacts of culture, into, say, weapons and songs, the strife and music of desire itself. lt is Robert Pinsky's riskiest and most imaginative book of poems."

Chicago Tribune
"His unmistakable identity as one of America's most inventive poets is even more apparent in these pages than in any of his previous books."


"...poems as spirited and weighty, eloquent and startling, as any poet of hisgeneration can summon."

About the Author
Dr. Drew Pinsky hosts the phenomenally successful radio show Loveline, now syndicated in almost 100 regional markets across America. For five years he co-hosted the nightly MTV program of the same name. A regular on Politically Incorrect and The View, Pinsky has been a guest on dozens of national television outlets, and has been profiled for Time, Premiere and Newsweek. In 1998 Pinsky and Loveline co-host Adam Carolla published The Dr. Drew and Adam Book: A Survival Guide to Life and Love. Currently, Pinsky is the medical director for the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, CA. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Susan, and their eight-year-old triplets.

Excerpted from The Want Bone (American Poetry Series) by Robert Pinsky. Copyright © 1991. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
From the Childhood of JesusOne Saturday morning he went to the river to play.He modeled twelve sparrows out of the river clayAnd scooped a clear pond, with a dam of twigs and mud.Around the pond he set the birds he had made,Evenly as the hours. Jesus was five. He smiled,As a child would who had made a little worldOf clear still water and clay beside a river.But a certain Jew came by, a friend of his father,And he scolded the child and ran at once to Joseph,Saying, "Come see how your child has profaned the Sabbath,Making images at the river on the Day of Rest."So Joseph came to the place and took his wristAnd told him, "Child, you have offended the Word."Then Jesus freed the hand that Joseph heldAnd clapped his hands and shouted to the birdsTo go away. They raised their beaks at his wordsAnd breathed and stirred their feathers and flew away.The people were frightened. Meanwhile, another boy,The son of Annas the scribe, had idly takenA branch of driftwood and leaning against it had brokenThe dam and muddied the little pond and scatteredThe twigs and stones. Then Jesus was angry and shouted,"Unrighteous, impious, ignorant, what did the waterDo to harm you? Now you are going to witherThe way a tree does, you shall bear no fruit And no leaves, you shall wither down to the root."At once, the boy was all withered. His parents moaned,The Jews gasped, Jesus began to leave, then turnedAnd prophesied, his child's face wet with tears:"Twelve times twelve times twelve thousands of yearsBefore these heavens and this earth were made,The Creator set a jewel in the throne of GodWith Hell on the left and Heaven to the right,The Sanctuary in front, and behind, an endless nightEndlessly fleeing a Torah written in flame. And on that jewel in the throne, God wrote my name."Then Jesus left and went into Joseph's house.The family of the withered one also left the place,Carrying him home. The Sabbath was nearly over. By dusk, the Jews were all gone from the river.Small creatures came from the undergrowth to drink And foraged in the shadows along the bank.Alone in his cot in Joseph's house, the SonOf Man was crying himself to sleep. The moonRose higher, the Jews put out their lights and slept,And all was calm and as it had been, exceptIn the agitated household of the scribe Annas,And high in the dark, where unknown even to JesusThe twelve new sparrows flew aimlessly through the night,
Not blinking or resting, as if never to alight.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"...poems as spirited and weighty, eloquent and startling, as any poet of hisgeneration can summon."(— The New Republic)

"The Want Bone is about the conflicting and overlapping metaphysics of Judaism and Christianity, about history as an invisible presence, about the creative and destructive potential of the imagination, about the drives and powers that shape us and that we in turn transfigure into the emblems and artifacts of culture, into, say, weapons and songs, the strife and music of desire itself. lt is Robert Pinsky's riskiest and most imaginative book of poems."(— The New York Times Book Review)

"His unmistakable identity as one of America's most inventive poets is even more apparent in these pages than in any of his previous books."(— Chicago Tribune)

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Most lyric poetry turns and tumbles in the bittersweet pathos of desire; the human heart and its fantasies have been Pinsky's subject for many years. His last book, History of My Heart, tried to locate the source of desire in autobiography. The new volume, a kind of sequel, largely avoids personal subject matter in order to explore the manifestations of desire in religious and mythological stories, from those of the Hindu gods Shiva and Parvati to Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar and--in a stunning prose piece, "Jesus and Isolt''--the fabled lovers Tristram and Isolt. One could call his subject desire in the abstract; the poet addresses "The old conspiracy of gain and pleasure / Flowering in the mind greedily to build the world / And break it.'' His writing is lush as Pinsky tries to remove himself from the Augustan mode of his earlier work--sentences sprawl over tercets and shift direction suddenly. This may be his best book; it is certainly his best collection of lyric poetry.

Library Journal