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bookbabe0614's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
fast-paced
2.0
Beautiful imagery but I cannot take the sexism
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexism
richardwells's review
5.0
An easy 5 stars. This is a book I could carry around for a few months. It's certainly not going on my actual shelves any time soon. Two old poets hold forth in short spurts. If you like like haiku, or asian verse, and if you'd like to know how the American idiom can comfortably extend the forms this is the book for you. If you'd like a master class in writing but hate the how-to books, this is for you.
Here's what: this book can teach you how to see, and it can teach you how to think about what you've seen, and it can teach you how to write about both. That's big stuff, but not only that, there's at least one gem on every page. Here are a few, at random:
The old hen scratches
then looks, scratches then looks.
My life.
In my garden
the late sun glows
through a rabbit's ears.
How can it be
that everyone my age
is older than I?
A nephew rubs the sore feet
of his aunt,
and the rope that lifts us all toward grace
creaks in the pulley.
Like I said, big stuff.
Here's what: this book can teach you how to see, and it can teach you how to think about what you've seen, and it can teach you how to write about both. That's big stuff, but not only that, there's at least one gem on every page. Here are a few, at random:
The old hen scratches
then looks, scratches then looks.
My life.
In my garden
the late sun glows
through a rabbit's ears.
How can it be
that everyone my age
is older than I?
A nephew rubs the sore feet
of his aunt,
and the rope that lifts us all toward grace
creaks in the pulley.
Like I said, big stuff.
rivercrow's review
5.0
Comment after first 45 pages.
This is wonderful. I find myself with a huge grin or pausing for introspection on nearly every page. Brilliant idea and lovely in its execution.
----
Definitely 4+.
Two dear friends corresponding via poems, "American Haiku," and aphorisms. I love that there is no ownership of the poems. From the back cover, "When asked about attributions for the individual poems, one of them replied, 'Everyone gets tired of this continuing cult of the personality . . . This book is an assertion in favor of poetry and against credentials.'" A beautiful little book that can be gobbled in a quick sitting. . . and returned to for further enjoyment.
Samples:
Under the storyteller's hat
are many heads, all troubled.
All I want to be
is a thousand blackbirds
bursting from a tree
seeding the sky.
A book on the arm of my chair
and the morning before me.
Lost: Ambition.
Found: A good book,
an old sweater,
loose shoes.
I want to describe my life in hushed tones
like a TV nature program. [read in David Attenborough voice] Dawn in the north.
His nose stalks the air for newborn coffee.
Some days
one needs to hide
from possibility.
If you can awaken
inside the familiar
and discover it strange
you need never leave home.
You told me you couldn't see
a better day coming,
so I gave you my eyes.
This is wonderful. I find myself with a huge grin or pausing for introspection on nearly every page. Brilliant idea and lovely in its execution.
----
Definitely 4+.
Two dear friends corresponding via poems, "American Haiku," and aphorisms. I love that there is no ownership of the poems. From the back cover, "When asked about attributions for the individual poems, one of them replied, 'Everyone gets tired of this continuing cult of the personality . . . This book is an assertion in favor of poetry and against credentials.'" A beautiful little book that can be gobbled in a quick sitting. . . and returned to for further enjoyment.
Samples:
Under the storyteller's hat
are many heads, all troubled.
All I want to be
is a thousand blackbirds
bursting from a tree
seeding the sky.
A book on the arm of my chair
and the morning before me.
Lost: Ambition.
Found: A good book,
an old sweater,
loose shoes.
I want to describe my life in hushed tones
like a TV nature program. [read in David Attenborough voice] Dawn in the north.
His nose stalks the air for newborn coffee.
Some days
one needs to hide
from possibility.
If you can awaken
inside the familiar
and discover it strange
you need never leave home.
You told me you couldn't see
a better day coming,
so I gave you my eyes.
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