Poetry
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A Fine Art of Balance Poetry Review As anyone who’s ever taken a course in literature knows, the two basic elements of any narrative are plot and character. Without these bare-bones elements a narrative loses its legs and collapses. Yet the hard part every writer struggles with is how to make their choices about plot…
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Poetry Review Two Or Three Guitars: Selected Poems by John Terpstra Two or Three Guitars is John Terpstra’s seventh book of poems. The Governor-General nominated writer has moved far along enough in his career for this latest book to be a “selected poems” that lets his readers look back on a twenty-five year career that…
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Poetry Review Primer on the Hereafter by Steve McOrmond Steve McOrmond opens his second collection Primer on the Hereafter with an epigraph from John Ashbery’s poem “Posture of Unease.” Ashbery says: “For all you I/Have neglected, ignored,/Left to stew in your own juices,/Not been like a friend that is approaching,/I ask forgiveness, a song like…
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Poetry Review The Human Cannonball by Halli Villegas At its best the despair of others reminds us of the persistence of happiness. When we watch or hear of suffering we may be lucky enough to recognize that for most of us life isn’t so bad. If it’s successful, the sadness artists express soothes our nerves…
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But great poets often produce mediocre work, bad poets can be surprisingly good, and very good poets are frequently no better than consistently above average – all of which is to say that it’s far more difficult to isolate “great poetry” than Kleinzahler (and most critics) might like to believe.
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Poetry Review Dan Chiasson Natural History Note, for example, the recent success of Dan Chiasson whose recent book Natural History is being lauded in poetry circles. Dan first “broke out” with a selection of poems in The New Yorker on “emerging poets.” His first book–well reviewed–was published by a good university press–University of Chicago. Natural…
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Poetry Review Mercury by Phillis Levin Damn the reviewer’s objectivity; Phillis Levin is a friend of mine. As so often in these situations, it turned out we had someone in common—a Canadian expatriate photographer living in Italy. Last summer, as I lay naked soaking up the sun in Sardinia, this photographer said that she knew…
Charles Durning Carroll 