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yongxiang's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. best poem: The Denial of Death. excerpt:
Come, he said, taking my arm. And we began
to walk around the lake, as was my daily habit.
I see, he said, that you no longer
wish to resume your former life,
to move, that is, in a straight line as time
suggests we do, but rather (here he gestured toward the lake)
in a circle, which aspires to
that stillness at the heart of things,
though I prefer to think it also resembles a clock.
Here he took out of his pocket
the large watch that was always with him. I challenge you, he said,
to tell, looking at this, if it is Monday or Tuesday.
But if you look at the hand that holds it, you will realize I am not
a young man anymore, my hair is silver.
Nor will you be surprised to learn
it was once dark, as yours must have been dark,
and curly, I would say.
Through this recital, we were both
watching a group of children playing in the shallows,
each body circled by a rubber tube.
Red and blue, green and yellow,
a rainbow of children splashing in the clear lake.
I could hear the clock ticking,
presumably alluding to the passage of time
while in fact annulling it.
Come, he said, taking my arm. And we began
to walk around the lake, as was my daily habit.
I see, he said, that you no longer
wish to resume your former life,
to move, that is, in a straight line as time
suggests we do, but rather (here he gestured toward the lake)
in a circle, which aspires to
that stillness at the heart of things,
though I prefer to think it also resembles a clock.
Here he took out of his pocket
the large watch that was always with him. I challenge you, he said,
to tell, looking at this, if it is Monday or Tuesday.
But if you look at the hand that holds it, you will realize I am not
a young man anymore, my hair is silver.
Nor will you be surprised to learn
it was once dark, as yours must have been dark,
and curly, I would say.
Through this recital, we were both
watching a group of children playing in the shallows,
each body circled by a rubber tube.
Red and blue, green and yellow,
a rainbow of children splashing in the clear lake.
I could hear the clock ticking,
presumably alluding to the passage of time
while in fact annulling it.
honeysgogh's review against another edition
2.0
Beautiful writing but very boring poetry. I'd love to pick up a different collection to see if this one was just a bust.
sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
4.0
"Look at us, she said. We are all of us in this room
still waiting to be transformed. This is why we search for love.
We search for it all of our lives,
even after we find it.”
still waiting to be transformed. This is why we search for love.
We search for it all of our lives,
even after we find it.”
theillegiblevirgo's review against another edition
2.0
a very direct subject and audience but the presence of all the no english languages is weird for me and took away from the experience.