A Disappointing Collection by a Good Writer

Winter's Journey by Stephen Dobyns
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

If poetry is the careful distillation of language to an essence,, then these stream-of-consciousness prosy essays are not really poetry. There is no doubt Stephen Dobyn's can write---given his past poetry collections and the concluding poem in Winter's Journey. But I cannot recommend this collection, given that it feels lax and self indulgent. There are moments: phrases and sentences that ring true or have fine wit about them. Let's just let it go at this: Disappointing.

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