Poetry and About Poetry

The Long Marriage: Poems by Maxine Kumin My rating: 4 of 5 stars Maxine Kumin has long been a favorite of mine for her steady eye on what it means to be human in a natural world. She is honest and yet hopeful about human relationships in the face of cruelty and death. In these poems she studies the headlines and brings disasters into her kitchen and garden even as she heals from her own injuries. Her death nearly a year ago is still a great loss. View all my reviews

The Long Marriage: Poems by Maxine Kumin My rating: 4 of 5 stars Maxine Kumin has long been a favorite of mine for her steady eye on what it means to be human in a natural world. She is honest and yet hopeful about human relationships in the face of cruelty and death. In these poems she studies the headlines and brings disasters into her kitchen and garden even as she heals from her own injuries. Her death nearly a year ago is still a great loss. View all my reviews

Flying At Night: Poems 1965-1985 by Ted Kooser My rating: 5 of 5 stars “like the thin gray scarves of immigrants standing in line, hands in their pockets, cold fingers pinching the lint of their stories” Thus Ted Kooser interweaves metaphor within metaphor, image within image, in this fine selection of poetry from 20 years of writing. His writing is lucid and simple, but beautiful and evocative. There are no sour notes, no tones of presumption or artificial distancing through obfuscation here. “The dog gets stiffly up and limps away, seeking a quiet spot at the heart of the house. Outside, in silence, with diamonds in his fur, the winter night curls round the legs of the trees, sleepily blinking snowflakes from his lashes.” Mortality hovers over every poem, but its bittersweet knowledge brings forth poetry worth spending time with. View all my reviews

Flying At Night: Poems 1965-1985 by Ted Kooser My rating: 5 of 5 stars "like the thin gray scarves of immigrants standing in line, hands in their pockets, cold fingers pinching the lint of their stories" Thus Ted Kooser interweaves metaphor within metaphor, image within image, in this fine selection of poetry from 20 years of writing. His writing is lucid and simple, but beautiful and evocative. There are no sour notes, no tones of presumption or artificial distancing through obfuscation here. "The dog gets stiffly up and limps away, seeking a quiet spot at the heart of the house. Outside, in silence, with diamonds in his fur, the winter night curls round the legs of the trees, sleepily blinking snowflakes from his lashes." Mortality hovers over every poem, but its bittersweet knowledge brings forth poetry worth spending time with. View all my reviews

The Gateway to Modern Arabic Poetry the English Version by Munir Mezyed My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an eye-opening look into the poetry being written by contemporary writers in Arabic from throughout the Middle East and the diaspora. The translation is workmanlike, but occasionally stilted. The formatting, whether for the Nook or in PDF, leaves much to be desired. Nonetheless, I recommend reading this translation. It helps us peer into verse that is not primarily Anglo-American and to hear the voices of men and women directly instead of as warped though the news outlets. View all my reviews

The Gateway to Modern Arabic Poetry the English Version by Munir Mezyed My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an eye-opening look into the poetry being written by contemporary writers in Arabic from throughout the Middle East and the diaspora. The translation is workmanlike, but occasionally stilted. The formatting, whether for the Nook or in PDF, leaves much to be desired. Nonetheless, I recommend reading this translation. It helps us peer into verse that is not primarily Anglo-American and to hear the voices of men and women directly instead of as warped though the news outlets. View all my reviews

Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser My rating: 5 of 5 stars A quietly brilliant collection. Ted Kooser’s Delights & Shadows is one of those rare volumes where I wish I had written nearly every poem within. With few exceptions, each poem has just the right imagery and just the right, quiet word to explode like a milkweed pod into a fertility of grace and meaning. View all my reviews

Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser My rating: 5 of 5 stars A quietly brilliant collection. Ted Kooser's Delights & Shadows is one of those rare volumes where I wish I had written nearly every poem within. With few exceptions, each poem has just the right imagery and just the right, quiet word to explode like a milkweed pod into a fertility of grace and meaning. View all my reviews

In our art and literature, we have confused the shock of the new with the new having to shock.

In our art and literature, we have confused the shock of the new with the new having to shock.

Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals by Patricia Lockwood My rating: 2 of 5 stars I wish I admired Lockwood’s collection, I really do. There are some poems that come close to successful, and one (“The Rape Joke”) which really hits home. Too many poems seem please with little dirty jokes or attempts at humor. “List of Cross-Dressing Soldiers” “The Fake Tears of Shirley Temple” and “The Descent of the Dunk” all come close. Too often I feel that what strives to be free and experimental is just undisciplined and needing rewriting. The main conceit that nations and landscapes are treated as if human bodies and beings, and vice verse, just doesn’t work here for me. Perhaps it is just me. But I really wanted to admire this collection. But as Lockwood might write, “Naaaaaaah.” View all my reviews

Motherland Fatherland Homelandsexuals by Patricia Lockwood My rating: 2 of 5 stars I wish I admired Lockwood's collection, I really do. There are some poems that come close to successful, and one ("The Rape Joke") which really hits home. Too many poems seem please with little dirty jokes or attempts at humor. "List of Cross-Dressing Soldiers" "The Fake Tears of Shirley Temple" and "The Descent of the Dunk" all come close. Too often I feel that what strives to be free and experimental is just undisciplined and needing rewriting. The main conceit that nations and landscapes are treated as if human bodies and beings, and vice verse, just doesn't work here for me. Perhaps it is just me. But I really wanted to admire this collection. But as Lockwood might write, "Naaaaaaah." View all my reviews

Traveler: Poems by Devin Johnston My rating: 4 of 5 stars In Traveler, Devin Johnston shows a range of formal ability including traditionally rhymed verse combined with an eye for nature and an ear for the right sound. He sees the world in its natural and human history upwelling in geological and meteorological forces: “In winter, clouds haul water from its source, the ocean basin, welling up by force of deep convection through the troposphere” His range includes the imagistic and evocative, the intentionally archaic, and the sensual: “Zipping your skirt, you rustle past, sand hissing through a glass, with the bedouin snap and flash of static-electric sparks disturbing fabric. This morning’s charge could rouse The Desert Fathers of Sinai over which I drowse.” I recommend spending a few days with this short volume. View all my reviews

Traveler: Poems by Devin Johnston My rating: 4 of 5 stars In Traveler, Devin Johnston shows a range of formal ability including traditionally rhymed verse combined with an eye for nature and an ear for the right sound. He sees the world in its natural and human history upwelling in geological and meteorological forces: "In winter, clouds haul water from its source, the ocean basin, welling up by force of deep convection through the troposphere" His range includes the imagistic and evocative, the intentionally archaic, and the sensual: "Zipping your skirt, you rustle past, sand hissing through a glass, with the bedouin snap and flash of static-electric sparks disturbing fabric. This morning’s charge could rouse The Desert Fathers of Sinai over which I drowse." I recommend spending a few days with this short volume. View all my reviews

Poverty Creek Journal by Thomas Gardner My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this slim volume of meditations, we listen as Thomas Gardner interweaves his running, nature, and the loss of his brother with reflections on the writings of Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman. and other poets and philosophers. He speaks simply but profoundly, his images of the natural world he encounters on his runs expressed with quiet poetry: “Bushes and leaves, heavy with frost, bending down to sip, drawing the light, in secret, to their lips.” His mourning is poignant and not self-pitying: “Now I’m alone, wordless, with the strangest sens of being set apart to mourn or notice. I’m not sure which. The wind above us, moving across space.” He quotes Simone Weil: “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer.” Gardner’s Poverty Creek Journal shows this to be true on every page. View all my reviews

Poverty Creek Journal by Thomas Gardner My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this slim volume of meditations, we listen as Thomas Gardner interweaves his running, nature, and the loss of his brother with reflections on the writings of Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman. and other poets and philosophers. He speaks simply but profoundly, his images of the natural world he encounters on his runs expressed with quiet poetry: "Bushes and leaves, heavy with frost, bending down to sip, drawing the light, in secret, to their lips." His mourning is poignant and not self-pitying: "Now I'm alone, wordless, with the strangest sens of being set apart to mourn or notice. I'm not sure which. The wind above us, moving across space." He quotes Simone Weil: "Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer." Gardner's Poverty Creek Journal shows this to be true on every page. View all my reviews