The Last Shift: Poems by Philip Levine (2016)

The final collection of poems selected by Philip Levine (1928-2015), National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, and the former Poet Laureate of the United States.

Poetry Review: The Last Shift may not be Philip Levine's strongest collection of poems, but it is a representative one, sampling topics from all areas of his life and thoughts. Something like a "Best of" record, he returns to moments reminiscent of a number of his previous works. The Last Shift is not only the title of the fine final poem of the collection, but an appropriate title for the final book by this proud poet of the working class. One of his collections was titled What Work Is (winner of the 1991 National Book Award), not a topic often addressed by American poets. One of the striking attributes of this book, a useful primer for all learning poets, is just what a fine craftsman Levine is, how well these poems are written, how well put together, how well he expresses his thoughts. Anyone could learn much from the poems in this book, how to construct a poem, how to choose the right words, how to say enough without saying too much ("each in her best flowered dress,/each with her worn Bible in hand"). And then there are the subjects and the language in The Last Shift. Levine writes of things that are used, are worn, that are touched and felt: "armies of picks/and shovels, their handles/stained with our fathers' lives." He ends that poem with simple beauty:

   All that's left
   are these few unread words
   without rhythm or breath
   fading before your eyes.

At times he touches on the Spanish poets and the Biblical (Psalm 137):

   By the waters of the Llobregat
   no one sits down to weep for the children

   of the world, by the Ebro, the Tagus,
   the Guadalquivir, by the waters
   of the world no one sits down and weeps.

The Last Shift is a book of history, of memories, memories of his youth in Detroit, labor, women, work, angels, family, travel.

   A lifetime passes
   in the blink of an eye. You look back and think,
   That was heaven, so of course it had to end.

Or even,

   Oh
   to be young and strong and dumb
   again in Michigan!

Perhaps Levine's whole life is wrapped up in the pages of The Last Shift, he selected these poems, showing his skill and his dreams, and in these pages you can find all the poems he ever wrote, just in other words. He's written his own elegy. [3½★] 🐢