Reviews

Words for Empty and Words for Full by Bob Hicok

beth_diiorio's review

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1.0

I usually love a variety of poetry. This however, was terribly disconnected, rambling, and inane.

lifeinpoetry's review

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4.0

The middle section was strong, poems on his experience of having been a professor of the Virginia Tech shooter and on the grief of losing students and colleagues in the shooting.

amittaizero's review

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4.0

Often excellently devastating with some abstract dips that are harder to follow. There's enough to hurt here to break the frozen ice that Kafka imagined within us. For days I'd avoid the book just to spread out the pain.

ifpoetshadmerch's review

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3.0

3.5 stars

I hope to be overcome by the lyric,
"try a little tenderness," since songs
are just scatterings and bones without us
and we are merely screamers without song.


Of the three sections to this collection, my favorite was the last. This is where I was able to feel the most of his poetry and the power of language to divulge something big and raw out of something simple and mundane, like a house in the mountains or a cap turned inside out for good luck. There's a cleverness that is present in all of Hicok's poem, a playfulness with sound and a looseness to the images he chooses to bring together. Sometimes this gave his poems an abrupt and disjointed feel, and there was a bluntness and anger that could be tiring at times. And while I did appreciate his use of sonic and the frantic movement between objects, my favorite parts are when Hicock slows down and dwells on a single moment, allowing it to really open up into something new.

rileaf's review

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emotional reflective
  • 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

5.0

itsbethmarie's review

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slow-paced

2.0

The technique is fine but I could not resonate with what the author is trying portray. Rating based solely on how I connected to the collection rather than technique. 
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