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cstefko's review against another edition
2.0
2 stars
The poems about grief and his mother's dementia were very affecting, but literally every other poem failed to interest me. Too abstract and bogged down in descriptive language. Nature poems that don't connect to humanity (or didn't for me, anyway).
The poems about grief and his mother's dementia were very affecting, but literally every other poem failed to interest me. Too abstract and bogged down in descriptive language. Nature poems that don't connect to humanity (or didn't for me, anyway).
littlebookjockey's review against another edition
3.0
This was a bit of a mediocre collection for me. None of the poems really stand out, and I don't think I'll remember any of it in a year's time. I wasn't fond of the way a lot of the poems' lines were broken up because it cut off the flow, but I did like the mixing of English and Spanish throughout the collection. Full review to follow.
iammandyellen's review against another edition
4.0
was ever cover
less expressive
of content?
Like a redaction—
less expressive
of content?
Like a redaction—
aserabelle's review against another edition
5.0
My favorite part was the plethora of poems about death.
schmidtmark56's review against another edition
3.0
The famed St. John of the Cross poem which every description of the book included was a lackluster postmodern mess not unlike taking an old text and running it through google translate. The rest of the book varied widely in its beauty and poetic charm, with occasionally whole poems seeming to exist for one or two good lines, while others, especially the longer ones, shone through reasonably well. Per usual, the author has a background in science and the last section, which had poetry mirroring photography, was muddled by a heavyhanded use of scientific jargon and generally pretentious diction.
lwalla01's review against another edition
4.0
I started this collection a long time ago. It is a short, but dense collection that requires patience, a Spanish-English dictionary, and multiple readings. Many of these poems have been published elsewhere, but come together in a nice collection. It's fitting that I finished this book on Morher's Day and read "Ruth" a poem dedicated and about his ailing mother. As someone new to poetry, I'll need to revisit this after some time and space.