Wisdom & Metaphor

A hardcover new-edition reprint of Zwicky’s GG-nominated book on the importance of metaphor to understanding.

In the foreword to Wisdom & Metaphor, Jan Zwicky describes how “those who think metaphorically are enabled to think truly, because the shape of their thinking echoes the shape of the world.” Wisdom & Metaphor is a different kind of book, one that proceeds not by single pages but by ‘openings’. On the left-hand side are Zwicky’s own thoughts, which build throughout the course of the book, introducing the range of cultures and concepts that contribute to her thinking. On the right-hand side are selections from the work of fellow thinkers — poets, philosophers, mathematicians and essayists. Along the path of connections that features language, haiku, ontology, home, math, duende, time and music (to name but a few), Zwicky manages to clarify without simplifying, and to involve a broad range of voices without collapsing them into her own. The author’s roving influences, coupled with an understated, largely spatial, style of discourse, make this book truly thought provoking. As fellow poet and reviewer Anne Simpson says, “there is no doubt that what Zwicky has given us is a book of wisdom.”