Some Things I Still Can't Tell You: Poems

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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A QUICK DISCLAIMER
I really need to come up with a boiler-plate paragraph, or at least a sentence or two for the rare occasions when I read a book of poems: Poetry isn't my thing. I try it every now and then (mostly then), and usually, when I do so, I'm reminded that it's not something I can easily appreciate.

Still, this is my second collection this year. Maybe I'm turning a corner.*

* Probably** not.

**Almost certainly not.

SO, WHY DID I BUY & READ SOME THINGS I STILL CAN'T TELL YOU?
That's easy—my daughter is one of Collins' biggest fans and I knew she'd be raving about it. I thought it'd be nice to have something to talk about.

WHAT'S SOME THINGS I STILL CAN'T TELL YOU ABOUT?
This is a collection of brief (all under two small pages—most less than one) poems by the actor Misha Collins—some are about his wife and their relationship, some about his parents, friends, children, and so on.

A COMMON STRUCTURE
You know how with Sudden Fiction there's a line or two at the end that acts like a punchline? Not necessarily like with a joke, but something that adds a little twist, or a surprise at the end of the story. These poems almost always feature something like that—you're going along reading about a rainy day or something, and then in a line or two it turns into something about missing his wife. Or being a jerk about something. Or thinking about a dead friend. Something to give a little “punch.”

It was common, but even after a couple dozen of them, it didn't stop being effective. And the ones that didn't have it weren't quite as good.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT SOME THINGS I STILL CAN'T TELL YOU?
I don't know if they're great art—my instinct is to say no, but what do I know? I do know that they're effective. They capture the feeling, the moment, the whatever Collins is talking about—they're not the kind of poems you have to sit and ponder to dig out the meaning (you probably can dig deeper than I did), you get the payoff immediately.

For me, that's what I want in a poem—a thought (fleeting or otherwise), an impression, a feeling—captured and passed on.

Going by that definition, this collection is a success.