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daramillz's review against another edition
3.0
I apprecitated several of the poems in this, but overall, I wanted to like it more than I did. I didn't care for the framing of each title as "Portrait of the Artist..." -- it rang pretentious to me, and seemed like the only thing really trying to unify the collection, as otherwise the poems seemed largely disparate. I thought that her poems about parenthood were some of the strongest, and would enjoy reading more of her work on this theme. I did love the final poem, "Portrait of the Artist as a Bog Body," and will likely include that in some of my options for students studying poetry.
lattelibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
"For what do They punish us / so bitterly when we were faithful to Them like dogs?"
A small but mighty poetry anthology. Shelley Puhak titles her poems with variations on "Portrait of the Artist as a..." which provides both necessary context and a mood. She experiments with her poetry, not sticking to one format, playing with space and italics and stanzas to offer us dear readers a further glimpse into just what she wants us to feel and see and recognize. From motherhood to weather to places, we understand that these portraits hang on the page ready to be admired and understood.
Beautiful.
A small but mighty poetry anthology. Shelley Puhak titles her poems with variations on "Portrait of the Artist as a..." which provides both necessary context and a mood. She experiments with her poetry, not sticking to one format, playing with space and italics and stanzas to offer us dear readers a further glimpse into just what she wants us to feel and see and recognize. From motherhood to weather to places, we understand that these portraits hang on the page ready to be admired and understood.
Beautiful.
robinks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
This collection didn’t really seem to have much tying it all together. While there were a couple with vivid, powerful imagery, I couldn’t connect to most of the work.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Violence, Death, Murder, and Suicide
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Vomit
cstefko's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
I thought Puhak stretched her concept (“portrait of the artist as”) a little too thin with some of the subjects chosen, but I did find most of the poems engaging. Just not a collection that’s going to stick in my mind very long.
“portrait of the artist with the inventor of the barometer” was my favorite.
“portrait of the artist with the inventor of the barometer” was my favorite.