Valerie Loveland
This book was beautiful. Although I knew a lot of nerd information, I knew almost nothing about the Domincan Republic. Even if you know nothing about either, Diaz leads you to make sure you aren't lost, but doesn't over explain. It makes you feel like you already know about it, and adds depth and richness to the prose. Even his footnotes are full of life and often hilarious.
I know so many people like Oscar, and I haven't seen this type of nerd as a character in something that was so well written. I am happy that this book won the Pulizer.
There are many featured characters in this book, and each time the character focus switched, I would get annoyed and wish that I could stay with my new favorite character. I think it is a little sad that Oscar has to share the book with so many other people, but I also think it is fitting to poor Oscar's life.
As someone who is into literature and sci fi and video games, it was nice seeing that those two worlds could be together.
I also really liked that it took place in New Jersey so I recognized a lot of places (In high school I daydreamed about living in Rutger's creative writing dorms, but couldn't afford to live on campus. Rutgers, New Brunswick was too far a commute so I went to Rowan).
I am confused. I love the idea of [b:Guess Can Gallop 1561019 Guess Can Gallop (New Issues Poetry & Prose) Heidi Lynn Staples http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1185238404s/1561019.jpg 1553562]. It is innovative, it is creative, interesting. However, I feel like this book broke my brain. Staples writes the poems in the books with spellings that sort of break the words into their pieces and puts them together. An example: instead of saying “science” she would say somethign like “sigh ends.” They are two words that are actual words, spelled correctly that when put together, sort of sound like “science.” I really like this, but I was having such a hard time figuring out all the words in the poem, I was kind of missing the poem. I concluded the only way for me to really understand the poems would be to figure out all the words, transcribe it somewhere with the proper spelling and then read it. Another problem I had was seeing a word and not knowing if it was one of the regular words, or one of the cobbled words. I was always trying to see if a word was connected to the one next to it to form another word.I think I would love this if it was just a few poems, but the whole book makes me feel like I am un-learning how to read. I feel pretty mixed up. I think I may have to go back and read only one poem a week.I kind of think the problem is on my side, not Staples's. My favorites: I can't find any of these poems onlineHeidi You Orange (The poet replaces her name instead of “Orange”) in a sort of definition of orange, and types of oranges.Witch One is Witch From a LynchingA Simple Leer Act Poem
I moved Mort's book [b:Factory of Tears 2231658 Factory of Tears Valzhyna Mort http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266656079s/2231658.jpg 2237470] to the top of my reading list because I liked the poem that Sarah posted in the online poem section of the group, and I heard Mort reading on the Poetry Magazine podcast. I was impressed by both her reading and her writing. I am still impressed after reading her book. Her images are very often surprising and she seems to write simply, but the poems are somehow heavy and they stick to you. They are gorgeous, even when their subjects aren't. This book was translated, but Mort has started to write in English. I only heard one of her English poems, but if all of her future Enlish poems are as good as the one I heard/read on Poetry Magazine. (The poem is Jean-Paul Belmondo), I can't wait for her next book. I missed the chance to see her read in Massachusetts last month. Even though the drive would have been an hour and a half away, I am mad I didn't go.My favorite poems in the book:New YorkGrandmother (4th poem from the top)White ApplesOn a Steamer
This is a gorgeous miserable book. I felt consumed by it and out of sorts while reading it because it felt so real. Atwood's books stick with me. On the last day I read 100 pages straight because I had to finish it.
I haven't been reading much fiction lately because I've been spending my reading time with poetry books. I should make more room in my reading schedule for great fiction like this.
The novel didn't really make me feel very happy. I get involved with the characters and worry about them. There were many moments that I had to stop reading because I was overcome at how beautifully it was written. It was cleaver, witty, dense–I felt like there was double the information in its 500 pages.
When I started reading [b:Blind Huber: Poems 20658 Blind Huber Poems Nick Flynn http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DMGDS2X2L.SL75.jpg 21846] this week, I met at beekeeper at work, a friend on mine sent me a poem that she wrote that included bees–bees were everywhere. I am so glad I picked this book for the 20th I've read so far this year. It was wonderful. It didn't feel like this whole book about bees was repetitive, or gimmicky. In addition to bees, there were poems about a specific bee researcher, Francois Huber (yeah, he was blind), and his assistant, Francois Burnens. I love how the poems are from the first person's perspective, either from Huber, Burnens or each type of bee. It sounds cheesy, but it isn't at all.I read a lot of Flynn's poems online when [b:Some Ether: Poems 20657 Some Ether Poems Nick Flynn http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167298487s/20657.jpg 21845] came out, and I really liked them, but I think these are even better. It feels like he ascends himself.My favorites in this book:Hive (Third poem down. It also has 4 other poems from the book)Queen (failed)TwinnedQueen (It is on page 3 of this document. It is the poem that made me buy the book)
[b:Immortal Sofa 4541028 Immortal Sofa (Illinois Poetry Series) Maura Stanton http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266792489s/4541028.jpg 4590294] is another book by Maura Stanton that I am disappointed by. It is better than [b:Life Among the Trolls 1905188 Life Among the Trolls (Carnegie Mellon Poetry) Maura Stanton http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1190115566s/1905188.jpg 1906971] but is not as good as [b:Snow on Snow 1905190 Snow on Snow Maura Stanton http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg 1906973] or [b:Cries of Swimmers 1610098 Cries of Swimmers Maura Stanton http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266846098s/1610098.jpg 1603692]. There were some good poems in the book, but there were a lot of poems that I didn't like that much. I don't like Stanton's formal poetry. It seems like I am always seeing Stanton's prose poems (which are great) published in literary magazines, but I haven't seen any of them published in any of her books that I've read (I think I read four out of six of her poetry books). Stanton also had some tributes to her cats, and although very sweet, they did not reach the quality of her other poems. I hate to say it, because I love cats, but pets and kids are one of those subjects that the poem has to be extraordinary to overcome the subject matter.I think I just have appreciate that her first two books are wonderful, and to stop comparing them to her other books. I own her two other poetry books and will probably be reading them soon, just in case they end up being as great as her first two. I can't wait to find out.My favorites from this book:Stare-e-o Vision PostcardsNineteenth Century AnimalsPride and Prejudice: the GameOde to Pokeweed
As part of my [b:Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell 3120276 Words in Air The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell Elizabeth Bishop http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256132457s/3120276.jpg 3151608] reading preparation, I wanted to read some Elizabeth Bishop. I hadn't read very much of her writing. I finished [b:Geography III: Poems 125219 Geography III Poems Elizabeth Bishop http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223644985s/125219.jpg 1764718] very quickly. There were only ten poems in the whole book. It was 50 pages, but the print was huge. All of these poems were new to me. I have only read “The Fish” before.I liked her imagery, and it seemed to me like the poems were written slowly and quietly. None of the writing is intense, or action packed, but it is enjoyable to read in a calming sort of way. There was a lot packed into the poems. I still haven't read that much of Bishop's poetry, but it feels like I read more than ten poems. My favorites in the book:Objects & Apparitions (This is for Joseph Cornell. I read a quote saying all poets have a thing for Cornell, and I think he might be right.)Night CityIn the Waiting RoomCrusoe in England
John Berryman's [b:The Dream Songs 150236 The Dream Songs John Berryman http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172212018s/150236.jpg 145004] is one of my favorite books. I was excited to read [b:Homage to Mistress Bradstreet 334570 Homage to Mistress Bradstreet John Berryman http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173839938s/334570.jpg 325054] because Berryman is mostly known for his Dream Songs, and I wanted to see what else he wrote.The book was not as good as the Dream Songs. I liked the Mistress Bradstreet poem (especially living in Massachusetts now). I really enjoyed the writer's unconventional relationship with his subject. I was impressed with his description of childbirth. Berryman also included notes on the poem at the end, and some of those were just as entertaining as the poem.I really didn't like the poems included in the “Early Poems” section of the book. I didn't like his strict rhyming in these poems, the form really sticks out in an awkward way. I think his later looser forms worked better. He was also pretty traditional with the subject matter in the early poems, and it was a relief to see his style heading toward the unusual. They are also lacking his twisted sense of humor, like Berryman is trying to be super serious.I liked some of the other poems, but they were mostly the “Nervous Songs” which seemed like a prototype for the Dream Songs, without Henry or Mister Bones, unfortunately.My favorite poems in the book:Homage to Mistress Bradstreet (I can't believe Poetry's website includes the whole poem)The Captain's SongYoung Woman's SongSong of the Demented Priest
I didn't want to like Tao Lin's [b:Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: Poetry 2193367 Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Poetry Tao Lin http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1213058492s/2193367.jpg 2199104], but he won me over. At first the poems seemed too casual or random, but I kept laughing at certain lines and didn't want to stop reading. He has a habit of using quotes around phrases in his poems like ‘intense eyebrows' or ‘you will never do enough for the people you love.' I didn't see why they were in quotes, but later, I thought some of the things he would put quotes around made funny lines even funnier. Half the poems didn't have titles, so it was hard for me to tell if each page was a new poem, or was continuing the previous page. There is a ton of repetition in this book, but it is more like recurring characters instead of repeated lines. Half the poems are about Hamsters. Other recurring characters are Richard Yates, Bruce Lee, a specific obese person, a specific ugly fish. There is a series of poems of certain people/animals soliciting or not soliciting his poetry, there are so many of these characters headbutting each other. I thought it was funny that several of Lin's poems end with “I'll be right back.”The weird thing is, if I had to compare him to anyone, I would say his style is slightly like Aase Berg, one of my favorites.I also have one of his other books [b:you are a little bit happier than i am 276692 you are a little bit happier than i am Tao Lin http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173349273s/276692.jpg 268329] which I can't find, but when I find it, I will probably read it right away.Here are some of my favorites from the book. I wish I could have found links to some of the poems about hamsters. Some of these links are from Tao Lin's own blog about the book, which includes the first 7 pages of the book, which I think is a great idea. I think giving people a taste of his poetry is a great way to get people to buy his books. i know at all times that in four hours i will feel completely differentroom night (second poem on the page)eleven-page poem, page twoeleven-page poem, page four
I loved Ruefle's [b:Indeed I Was Pleased With the World 606104 Indeed I Was Pleased With the World Mary Ruefle http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31kVQGtE99L.SL75.jpg 592651] and [b:Tristimania 508152 Tristimania Mary Ruefle http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1225217924s/508152.jpg 496175] was great too, maybe better even! There were a lot poems that used repetition in the collection. Usually I don't like repetitive poems, but I really enjoyed all but one of them. The poem I didn't like was sort of double repetitive: each line was something like: I might____, I might not ___. It was probably the one poem I didn't love in the whole book.Her images, and the ideas in her poems just strike a chord with me. Even when the topic isn't something I especially care about, I feel like she makes me feel like it is a very dear subject to me. Ruefle is letting me know all the secrets of a thing, I am always surprised when I read her. She is also a great reader: Here are audio/video files of her reading in Berkley in 2002.There was a cute poem at the end of the book that is titled “A Poem by Mary Ruefle” which was written by Dean Young. Even though I think he was trying to write like her, it was obvious that it was someone just trying to imitate. Ruefle also has a poem in one of Young's books, titled, of course: “A Poem by Dean Young.” I will have to track it down.My favorite poems in the book (It is times like these that I wish I didn't have my rule of only listing 4 of my favorites from the book):Why I am not a Good KisserFemale Ruin (Down at the middle of the page, after some photos)Where Letters GoThe World as I Left It (This is about half way down the page, right before the youtube embedded movie)
Everyone knows the title poem in this collection. It's a great poem. I decided to read this after hearing this poem read by Levine on Poetry Magazine's website. It reminded me that I should read some more of his poems.
It is hard to write a review of someone as prominent and well-liked as Levine, especially when it is the old work that made them famous, and especially when you think that he's great too. We pretty much all agree: he's wonderful. He sculpted Contemporary American Poetry.
The only things I can say otherwise is I should have read this book when I was feeling a little less tired/run down. It made me feel more beat-down by the world. I also kind of missed having some stanza breaks in the poems. Levine hardly has any, which I think suits the poems' tiring subject matter. The book was exhausting.
My favorite poems in the book:
What Work Is (of course!)
M. Degas Teaches Art And Science At Durfee Intermediate School
My Grave (Try to ignore the person's notes. I couldn't find it elsewhere online. Sorry!)
Facts (at the end of their blog post)
I felt like reading this book was hard work, and I had to stay very focused. The book had a lot of poems that I didn't understand at first, then read them over and over until I liked them. There were a few I could never figure out. I think this is one of those books that will have something for me every time I visit it. I liked Greenberg's connections, and images. I liked the way almost all of her poems looked on the page.
I liked Greenberg's use of blanks (as in, fill in the blanks) in some of her poems. It was fun to fill in the blanks myself. She also used very long dashes at times, in a similar way. I really didn't like how she used a scissor icon over and over in one of her poems. I felt like it was just a gimmick and didn't really add to the poem.
My favorite poems in this book: (I couldn't find any of these online! I found a lot of Greenberg's poems online, but not from this book)
Sea Legs
Foot and Mouth
The Apple-Headed Doll
The Alexander Technique
There is a lot of repetition in [b:Vacationland 80192 Vacationland Ander Monson http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170979879s/80192.jpg 77434], but I don't mind, overall. There are three poems titled Vacationland, one in each section of the book. The subjects of the poems and certain lines and concepts are repeated in different poems too. Monson's favorite subjects seem to be snow, scantron tests, axes, trucks, blood, streetlamps, ash.There are so many elegies in this book. Most are serious for dead friends, and the others are for more general subjects, like luggage, or are love poems disguised as elegies, like “Elegy for the End of Weather.” I love Monson's titles, although it sometimes feels like they don't exactly match the poems. One type of poem he does that I dislike is a poem with bullets down the left edge of the page. Those don't work for me (I think there are only 2 of them in the book).In poetry, I am used to snow being delicate, but Monson shows us the roughness of living someplace that is cold all the time. I like seeing this side of snow, especially since this is only my second winter here in Massachusetts, and it feels like snow will be on the ground forever.Monson has some unusual linebreaks, and images. I like them. He is a lot of fun to read. I like seeing elegies done a different way.My favorites from the book:Outline Towards and Antidote: IIISynonymWhat is Less Than Fire is Less Than XStill Life With Half of Walter MittyHere are some sites with more of his poems:Web Del Sol has links to his poems at the bottom.Konundrum Literary Review published three poems from Vacationland.
I enjoyed Alex Lemon's [b:Mosquito: Poems 333964 Mosquito Poems (A Tin House New Voice) Alex Lemon http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173836875s/333964.jpg 324460]. His book deals a lot with illness, whether it is his own or his grandfather's. Even the love poems in this book have a bit of sickness in them. The poems feel like they are more alive in a way because the speaker in the poems doesn't take life for granted.I think this book is something everyone can relate to because we all have or will have to deal with serious illness. It is authentic in the way it portrays a life trying to be normal and day to day while having something scary and serious always looming. I don't mind that Lemon doesn't spell everything out in his poems. He leads the reader through the poetry with beautiful wordplay and lovely phrases that almost reveal what is going on. My favorites from the book:MRIAshtrayPortrait My Mother Painted from My MugshotKinematics (the second poem after the interview, which is an interesting interview, btw)
Victoria Chang's book [b:Circle 403460 Circle (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry) Victoria Chang http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174452553s/403460.jpg 392839] is separated into three different sections: “on quitting,” “five year plan,” and “limits.” All the sections were good, but I really liked the section on quitting, which were about the dark side of love/relationships. I felt like those poems were more emotionally charged. I especially loved when The Man in the White Truck, a man that the speaker was having an affair with, shows up in some of the poems. He has a poem about him with “The Man in the White Truck” as the title, and then he appears in a few other poems. It was like seeing a recurring character in a tv show. It was fun to see him, and get more information about their relationship in other poems.Chang had a lot of historical women in her poems, and I liked seeing how women dealt with thier lives in other time periods. Some of the other poems in the book, while well-constructed, and beautiful, were a little disconnected, emotionally.I read a lot of Chang's poetry online, and really loved just about all of it. I picked up her second book [b:Salvinia Molesta: Poems 3381724 Salvinia Molesta Poems (The Vqr Poetry Series) Victoria Chang http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515fzjxFwWL.SL75.jpg 3421384]. I am looking forward to reading it because I suspect those poems will be closer to the ones I've been reading online than to the ones in her first book.My favorite poems in the book:The Man in the White Truck Holiday PartiesSeven ChangsSeven Reasons for Divorce
I hated the first poem in this collection: “Nothing.” I don't like poems that are overly vague, and I thought I was going to have to trudge through a whole book of air. The beginning of this book was rough, but the poems got much better. I didn't like the longer poems in the book, they were sort of rambling and I kept losing focus when I read them. The shorter poems were better. They were still a bit abstract, but they are full of images and humor. I didn't understand Manguso's line and stanza breaks in the longer poems, the lines are very long, and it seems like they break in random spots. The shorter ones were either one stanza, or if there were stanza breaks, they were more organized.The titles were either one word like “Nothing” or “Burning,” or they were interesting titles like “The Only Thing to Pray for is Fire.”Although I felt like I was being pulled back and forth between things I liked and disliked, it was an enjoyable read, overall. The majority were great poems. [b:Siste Viator 91010 Siste Viator Sarah Manguso http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171225632s/91010.jpg 87818] made a bad first impression and spent the whole book trying to win me over (it did).My favorite poems in the book:Address to an Absent LoverJupiter Has 61 MoonsBurningHand Model
Cate Marvin's poetry is really well constructed. It feels dense when you read it. I feel like I am getting twice the information that I would normally get in each line. I loved Marvin's [b:World's Tallest Disaster 868590 World's Tallest Disaster Cate Marvin http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179043969s/868590.jpg 1134961] so I was eager to read this one too. Somehow, Marvin's poetry is even more condensed in this book. The sentences are shorter, which might be why the words feel like they are packed even tighter?It took me longer to read this book. It was at the same time, a pleasure and a torture to read. I am always so worried about the speaker in her poems. They are a mess, desperate, and angry. However, they describe their troubles with the most gorgeous language.I think I might like Marvin's first book slightly better, but both are worth checking out.This has nothing to do with the writing, but the cover is one of my favorites. It is disturbing and familiar.My favorites in this collection: (Almost all of them have audio links. Her reading adds quite a bit to the poems.)A Brief AttachmentLying My Head OffNyquilLove the ContagionColder, BittererThe Cate Marvin page on From the Fishouse is great.
After earning his MFA, Brian Turner served in Iraq with the US Army for a year. He called himself an embedded poet.
Learning about the war through poetry, it is easier to understand daily life for the soldiers, and about the place where they are living away from their families. It describes parts of a place that I haven't seen before. I don't think I ever got a real picture of what Iraq looks like, even though I've seen it on the news. These poems paint a picture that includes, smells, weather.
Many of the poems are heartbreaking. Most are related to war, but not all of them. I like that Turner includes poems written about landscapes, and dreams too. There is a series of dream poems “Dreams from the Malaria Pills” which are interesting and disturbing. Also, I didn't know that malaria pills gave people weird dreams.
I am interested in seeing what Turner writes about for his next book.
My favorite poems in this book:
Sadiq - I love the ending of this poem: “it should break your heart to kill.”
Jameel - This poem has a great description of cowbirds, bees.
Milh - A gorgeous poem about salt production.
Here Bullet - I love the ending: “here is where the world ends every time.”
From the Fishouse (my favorite poetry website) has a good Brian Turner page.
[b:Snow on Snow 1905190 Snow on Snow Maura Stanton http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg 1906973] and [b:Cries of Swimmers 1610098 Cries of Swimmers Maura Stanton http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg 1603692] are some of my favorite books, and they are also the only two Stanton books I've read before this one. I probably had unfair expectations for [b:Life Among the Trolls 1905188 Life Among the Trolls (Carnegie Mellon Poetry) Maura Stanton http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1190115566s/1905188.jpg 1906971], Stanton's fourth poetry book, since I loved the other two so much.There were some great poems in this book, but I really didn't like the style of about half of the poems. Those were kind of loose and rambling, or they rhymed, at times, awkwardly.I feel like it is a transition book, and she is between styles. I know later she writes prose poems, which are also good.I still think the book is still worth reading for the great poems, but I would rather recommend her first two books of poetry, where every single poem is fantastic.I loved the poem “A History of Criticism,” which was in 5 parts. I think people who work in academia would especially enjoy it.My other favorite poems in the book:Returning to Arizona - As someone who has moved a lot, I can relate to this.Chairman - I enjoyed the mysterious characters Mr. X, Mr. Y and Mr. ZIce Storm on the Pennsylvania Turnpike - It snows a lot in Massachusetts, and I think Stanton describes perfectly the feelings of driving in horrible weather.
I really like how this book uses the same subjects, and images throughout the book, and it feels like they are talking about the same specific hummingbirds or jaguars that keep appearing. It reminds me of when an artist will use the same image in different settings and combinations. The whole book works together.
It has a similar, surreal and whimsical style to The Man Suit, but there is less variety in Scary, No Scary. The book is still good, but it is hard to compete with The Man Suit, which is one of my favorites.
The section of the book called The Histories has linked poems where objects appear and then aren't really there. The objects are a table chair, chandelier, sheet, floor and ceiling. In each poem, some of the objects are there and others are there, they cycle so every object has a chance to be there and not be there. Although this section isn't my favorite, it is an interesting set of poems.
I was disappointed with the titles, most of them were just a repeat of the first stanza of the poem.
Schomburg has an index of subjects at the end of the book, just like in The Man Suit, and it is just as hilarious.
My favorite poems in this book:
a href=”http://www.typomag.com/issue08/schomburg.html”>Scary, No Scary
The Sawing In Half
The Black Hole (middle poem on the page)
Remainland is Aase Berg's selected poems. I read her book, With Deer a couple months ago, and liked it so much I found her only other book that has been translated into English, Remainland.
Berg's poems are some of the strangest that I've read. Johannes Goransson, her translator says, “Aase Berg's poetry is impossible to make into natural-sounding English because it is not natural-sounding in Swedish.” I agree, it is not natural-sounding, but it is charming. She is a poet that seems to have a lot of fun with words, and I love the unique world she created. It is full of wooded landscapes with various animals (guinea pigs, lemurs, whales, hares)as enemies, allies, or even offspring.
My favorite poems were from her book Transfer Fat, which were poems about pregnancy, although I didn't realize that at first. I am always talking about how fat my cats are, so I really enjoyed these poems. The poet compares being pregnant to being a whale, but it isn't in the usual derogatory way. It actually makes the whale comparison seem natural and complimentary. The baby is called a hare throughout these poems, which is adorable.
I couldn't find any of the poems from this part of the book online, so here is one of my favorites from Transfer Fat:
Hole Whale
Whales want water
hollow in water
lightness in fatness
flight in blubber
Some of my other favorites in this book:
Logging Time (The middle poem on this page)
X Ray (The poem after the picture of glowing Lemurs, ha!)
The only thing I didn't like about the poems is Berg's sometimes including bodily fluids, which is usually fine, but I could do without diarrhea and vomit. However, it is worth having a couple unpleasant moments reading when the rest of the book is delightful to read.
It's a good book. I like Guest's dense, linked, writing style, although it took a few poems to get used to it.
This book has been recommended to me many times, I often see it at bookstores and I've even seen people I don't know reading it.
Almost every poem is one stanza, and there were some times I really could have used a stanza break to catch my breath. Overall, one stanza suits the dense, waterfalling words.
Although I like Guest's poem titles when they are specific: “User's Guide to Physical Debilitation” and “Elegy for the Lumbering Monster,” I don't like the titles that could be exchanged for other titles: “Poem Written to Replace Another” and “Poem Written Outside Wintry Mix.”
My favorites in this book:
Bad Mood: This poem really captures the bad mood. Some days just feel like everything is wrong.
Valentine: There are stanzas in this poem! I like the dreaminess of the poem, and love how he describes himself on the ocean floor with a shell and claws.
My Crush: The description of pain in the body as shimmering, and the “spines full of wire” were beautiful. There is a gorgeous longing in this.
Job: This poem is really funny, and sad. I love poems about working in an office.
I really liked the titles in this book and the way they connect to the poems. Many titles were questions that Baggott gets asked from students and aspiring poets about where she gets her ideas, why she writes, and does she simultaneously submit (she does). The poems seem like they aren't answering the question the titles ask, but then by the end of the poem, you have the answer. The titles seem so ordinary and trite, but then the poem that follows always has great images and surprises. The poems also show the love a poet feels for poetry. She has a lot of series of poems in this book, and it never felt like she was stretching for quantity. Each poem in each series had something unique to offer.
All the poems in this book are about writing/poetry, and are self-aware, which usually bothers me, but in this case, I liked them. Each of Baggott's poems somehow makes me feel like I'm having a conversation about writing and I also get so see some lovely images. They are half interview, half poem, but they still feel like a whole interview, and a whole poem. She affirms the reasons that we write and why we love poetry.
My favorite poems:
“In Response to Poetry is a House with Many Rooms” - I enjoyed the image of all the different rooms, and I like how the poem started light-hearted, and turned surprisingly nefarious.
“Poetry Punishes You for Your Absence” - When I wasn't writing regularly, I always dreaded the first couple poems I would write once I started again. It was so hard to get started again, and it really did feel like I was being punished.
“Q and A: Why do you write? Answer #1” - I loved all the heart imagery and the anatomy terms she included were beautiful and whimsical.
“1. Poetry Addresses Her Sister, the Novel” - As someone who has tried to write prose, but never could figure it out, and also someone with sisters, I liked this poem a lot.
