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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
I know that Diane Seuss is a big deal! And this is a big deal book! And I think I am just not strong enough.
I loved some of these poems (I am a sucker for dead fathers), but/and overall struggled to stay in tune with all of them. Two things here that are my personal character flaws: I don't generally enjoy people writing about writing, and I'm not smart enough for long poems. So, I was set up to fail.
I enjoyed the clear tone (speaker is funny and witty), attention to class, and if I were more educated, then I imagine I would have appreciated the references to music and poetry forms.
I loved some of these poems (I am a sucker for dead fathers), but/and overall struggled to stay in tune with all of them. Two things here that are my personal character flaws: I don't generally enjoy people writing about writing, and I'm not smart enough for long poems. So, I was set up to fail.
I enjoyed the clear tone (speaker is funny and witty), attention to class, and if I were more educated, then I imagine I would have appreciated the references to music and poetry forms.
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Love that she loves O'Hara. And "Love Letter" was an absolutely beautiful, realistic image of a love poem.
"She was a prototype of tenderness."
"Maybe the first love is the best love. / The first loss, the worst. If so, mine came early. // The rest is repetition compulsion, / iterations until the ink runs dry."
"It's clear we die a hundred times / before we die. The selves / that were gauzy, soft, sweet, capable, / of throwing themselves away on love, died young. They sacrificed / themselves to the long haul."
"No one spoke to me, as people in the north / did not speak to strangers, and I was a stranger. / One murky country song played over and over / until I began to believe it was the only song in the world."
"My god, / I'm homesick for life, the warm / snout of it, you know?"
"I'm thinking now of PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. / Balladeers. Lovers. Vita and Virginia. / Frank O'Hara and Vincent Warren. Somehow, / we ride our lost loves out to sea. Or they ride us."
"Always, / he was working it, working it out, / the meaning of suffering, the world's / his own, the encounter with beauty, / nearly synonymous with suffering, / how empathy could extinguish him"
"She was a prototype of tenderness."
"Maybe the first love is the best love. / The first loss, the worst. If so, mine came early. // The rest is repetition compulsion, / iterations until the ink runs dry."
"It's clear we die a hundred times / before we die. The selves / that were gauzy, soft, sweet, capable, / of throwing themselves away on love, died young. They sacrificed / themselves to the long haul."
"No one spoke to me, as people in the north / did not speak to strangers, and I was a stranger. / One murky country song played over and over / until I began to believe it was the only song in the world."
"My god, / I'm homesick for life, the warm / snout of it, you know?"
"I'm thinking now of PJ Harvey and Nick Cave. / Balladeers. Lovers. Vita and Virginia. / Frank O'Hara and Vincent Warren. Somehow, / we ride our lost loves out to sea. Or they ride us."
"Always, / he was working it, working it out, / the meaning of suffering, the world's / his own, the encounter with beauty, / nearly synonymous with suffering, / how empathy could extinguish him"
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Super interesting to see how Seuss writes when not constrained by the sonnet form. I especially loved the one where she compared the pride that people have for their hometowns with the pride people have for their unremarkable children. Her voice verges on acerbic/meanspirited but never quite crosses the threshold bc when she's given the opportunity to go for the kill, she always turns to present more complexity and humanity on the matter. Her voice more comes across as frank (no pun intended) and unsentimental, yet with a kind of rugged affection for the world.
reflective
fast-paced
I’ve been wanting to read more poetry and this showed up on some best of 2024 lists, so I decided to give it a try. Poetry is a bit hit or miss for me, and this one was a miss. I can appreciate what Seuss was trying to do, but it just didn’t work for me.
reflective
slow-paced
This was interesting. Not something I’d usually pick up, the imagery was outstanding and the lyricism of Seuss’s writing was beautiful
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
Great images and interesting texture in these poems, but there’s a pessimism and resistance of meaning making that really didn’t work for me in this collection.