Poetry logging
Mar. 19th, 2019 01:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckCole, Henri. Blackbird and Wolf - These felt a lot like they were written by a person who needed different words but didn’t have the option of looking for them. That is, a lot of the phrases are vague enough to feel only half nailed down. Might well work for someone not-me.
Dunn, Stephen. A Circus of Needs - I know I read this, but I have zero recollection of the style. This is why I need to jot down comments about poetry books immediately. They blur together too much otherwise. I'm sadly better about recording titles than about recording my impressions. I did finish it, according to my records. Beyond that? No idea.
Equi, Elaine. The Cloud of Knowable Things - I felt a certain clarity in a number of these poems. I can't tell how much of that was me feeling better while reading these than I had in a while.
Faizullah, Tarfia. Registers of Illuminated Villages - There's a long shadow of loss over these poems. I didn't quite get how all of the pieces fit together, but the loss is clearly there.
Handal, Nathalie. The Republics - These poems are text dense. There's variation in emotional tone and some bits not in English (and not translated, either). Some of that is in Spanish basic enough for me to understand. Some of the is French, some Spanish too complex for me, some possibly other languages or possibly not. There's a lot of pain in the poems, more toward the loss and despair side than toward the angry side.
Jin, Ha. A Distant Center (translated by the author) - These poems focus heavily on displacement, the loss of home and the attempts to find a new one. It's all gentle enough not to be obvious pain, but it's very definitely grief, the kind that goes with death.
Levertov, Denise. A Door in the Hive - I came away with this collection with a sense that most of the poems were about God in one way or another. There was a thread of environmentalism and grief for the things humans do to each other, too.
Merwin, M.S. The Shadow of Sirius - A lot of these talk about cycles and eternity, things that last and things that don’t.
Perdomo, Willie. Where a Nickel Costs a Dime - I had a little trouble reading the titles of the poems because they were light print on dark background and had parts of various words faded out. Fortunately for me, the poems themselves were black on a white background. The poems are very specifically about moments, about places and people with a solid presence. Warning for discussion of violence and death.
Sanchez, Sonia. Wounded in the House of a Friend - There are essays mixed in with the poetry. Most of the poems seem to be in conversation, either two parts of the poem with each other or the poem with something outside itself. Race, sex, and history, among other things, are centered. Warning for discussion of rape and abuse.
Walker, Alice. Revolutionary Petunias - No recollection of this.
Williams, C.K. The Singing - These poems have a lot of grief in them. There's hope, too, but it's very measured and has more to do with knowing that every living thing struggles and that things continue on after even the most globally terrible or personally painful events.
Xie, Jenny. Eye Level - These poems are mostly built of fragments with part of the meaning in the contradictions and the empty spaces. I quite liked these.
Started but not finished:
Ensor, Hannah. love dream with television - These poems were stream of consciousness in a way that felt confusing/disconnected. One seemed to be, effectively, the poet's live blogging of the first Jurassic Park movie. I bounced hard.
Ewing, Eve L. Electric Arches - These poems were very word dense, and some were, by my definitions, more essays than poems. A lot of the subject matter is painful and kind of hopelessly angry. I wish we lived in a world that didn't need anger.
Harrison, Jim. In Search of Small Gods - The poems in the middle third of this book were densely packed text. I couldn’t parse them properly. I gave up because I couldn’t get myself to care about doing the work. I've liked some of Harrison's other work.
Smith, Patricia. Teahouse of the Almighty - This one didn’t get read entirely due to a combination of factors-- first the holidays, second the death of the overhead light in our bedroom, third a hold on it at the library meaning I couldn’t renew it. I struggled with not being able to find the right rhythm for reading the poems.
Soto, Gary. The Elements of San Joaquin - I didn't feel up to the violence inherent in these poems or to the realization that the book was published in 1977 but still read a lot like something more recent with regard to race, poverty, immigration, etc. Quite likely something that would work spectacularly well for someone not-me.
Dunn, Stephen. A Circus of Needs - I know I read this, but I have zero recollection of the style. This is why I need to jot down comments about poetry books immediately. They blur together too much otherwise. I'm sadly better about recording titles than about recording my impressions. I did finish it, according to my records. Beyond that? No idea.
Equi, Elaine. The Cloud of Knowable Things - I felt a certain clarity in a number of these poems. I can't tell how much of that was me feeling better while reading these than I had in a while.
Faizullah, Tarfia. Registers of Illuminated Villages - There's a long shadow of loss over these poems. I didn't quite get how all of the pieces fit together, but the loss is clearly there.
Handal, Nathalie. The Republics - These poems are text dense. There's variation in emotional tone and some bits not in English (and not translated, either). Some of that is in Spanish basic enough for me to understand. Some of the is French, some Spanish too complex for me, some possibly other languages or possibly not. There's a lot of pain in the poems, more toward the loss and despair side than toward the angry side.
Jin, Ha. A Distant Center (translated by the author) - These poems focus heavily on displacement, the loss of home and the attempts to find a new one. It's all gentle enough not to be obvious pain, but it's very definitely grief, the kind that goes with death.
Levertov, Denise. A Door in the Hive - I came away with this collection with a sense that most of the poems were about God in one way or another. There was a thread of environmentalism and grief for the things humans do to each other, too.
Merwin, M.S. The Shadow of Sirius - A lot of these talk about cycles and eternity, things that last and things that don’t.
Perdomo, Willie. Where a Nickel Costs a Dime - I had a little trouble reading the titles of the poems because they were light print on dark background and had parts of various words faded out. Fortunately for me, the poems themselves were black on a white background. The poems are very specifically about moments, about places and people with a solid presence. Warning for discussion of violence and death.
Sanchez, Sonia. Wounded in the House of a Friend - There are essays mixed in with the poetry. Most of the poems seem to be in conversation, either two parts of the poem with each other or the poem with something outside itself. Race, sex, and history, among other things, are centered. Warning for discussion of rape and abuse.
Walker, Alice. Revolutionary Petunias - No recollection of this.
Williams, C.K. The Singing - These poems have a lot of grief in them. There's hope, too, but it's very measured and has more to do with knowing that every living thing struggles and that things continue on after even the most globally terrible or personally painful events.
Xie, Jenny. Eye Level - These poems are mostly built of fragments with part of the meaning in the contradictions and the empty spaces. I quite liked these.
Started but not finished:
Ensor, Hannah. love dream with television - These poems were stream of consciousness in a way that felt confusing/disconnected. One seemed to be, effectively, the poet's live blogging of the first Jurassic Park movie. I bounced hard.
Ewing, Eve L. Electric Arches - These poems were very word dense, and some were, by my definitions, more essays than poems. A lot of the subject matter is painful and kind of hopelessly angry. I wish we lived in a world that didn't need anger.
Harrison, Jim. In Search of Small Gods - The poems in the middle third of this book were densely packed text. I couldn’t parse them properly. I gave up because I couldn’t get myself to care about doing the work. I've liked some of Harrison's other work.
Smith, Patricia. Teahouse of the Almighty - This one didn’t get read entirely due to a combination of factors-- first the holidays, second the death of the overhead light in our bedroom, third a hold on it at the library meaning I couldn’t renew it. I struggled with not being able to find the right rhythm for reading the poems.
Soto, Gary. The Elements of San Joaquin - I didn't feel up to the violence inherent in these poems or to the realization that the book was published in 1977 but still read a lot like something more recent with regard to race, poverty, immigration, etc. Quite likely something that would work spectacularly well for someone not-me.
