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s_a_g_e's review against another edition
1.0
I get that art is subjective, but boy is this some of the worst art I have ever seen.
Conceited, vapid, banal, and ultimately asinine; Four adjectives I would use to describe this book.
I don't know if "erasure poetry" is really all that interesting to me to begin with, especially if you're not saying anything particularly funny or poignant (as is the case here), but even moreso I can't believe anyone would have the balls to actually get this crap published, and sell it for $15 (on Amazon as of 1/21/23). The "book" takes all of 2 minutes to read, and contains absolutely nothing profound. Nothing of substance. It's the literary equivalent of some cheap word art you pick up from the local Home Goods and hang on the wall.
Sure, it has words. It technically says something, in that the words themselves have meanings. But it is solely unremarkable and unmemorable. Like motel art, a microwave dinner, or elevator music. Bland. Boring. Wholly inoffensive and unimaginative.
I wish I could get back the time I took to read this book. It would have been better used reading the back of a shampoo bottle.
Conceited, vapid, banal, and ultimately asinine; Four adjectives I would use to describe this book.
I don't know if "erasure poetry" is really all that interesting to me to begin with, especially if you're not saying anything particularly funny or poignant (as is the case here), but even moreso I can't believe anyone would have the balls to actually get this crap published, and sell it for $15 (on Amazon as of 1/21/23). The "book" takes all of 2 minutes to read, and contains absolutely nothing profound. Nothing of substance. It's the literary equivalent of some cheap word art you pick up from the local Home Goods and hang on the wall.
Sure, it has words. It technically says something, in that the words themselves have meanings. But it is solely unremarkable and unmemorable. Like motel art, a microwave dinner, or elevator music. Bland. Boring. Wholly inoffensive and unimaginative.
I wish I could get back the time I took to read this book. It would have been better used reading the back of a shampoo bottle.
calicokingdom's review against another edition
3.0
this little book required for some classes was $16 and i read it in the bookstore in 5 minutes
sloatsj's review against another edition
5.0
Wonderful and surprising and often very funny. I adored this book. When I received the book and saw how slim and small it was, I was like, what? I paid $16 for this? But by the end I was ready to surrender much more than that. It brought me so much pleasure.
Found poetry is an acquired taste so I realize this book and others like it aren’t for everyone. I recently told a poet acquaintance over dinner that I was writing found poetry and she could not disguise her distaste. Not that she tried. Smile. Oh well. Five years ago, it seemed an odd pursuit to me, too.
Anyway, Mary Ruefle takes a 41-page pamphlet from 1889 and whites out most of the text to find a short poem on each page, some as short as six words. It’s as if the constraint has freed her. The results seem reckless and weird and are often very funny. The reader is still looking at the original pamphlet but it has been smeared with white-out fluid, somewhat sloppily to be honest, but I found that part of the charm.
One of my favorites, without its ‘format,’ goes:
seven centuries of sobbing
gathered in the twilight
and had their pages
wandered through
Another is the short:
It
was my duty to keep
the piano filled with roses.
Found poetry is an acquired taste so I realize this book and others like it aren’t for everyone. I recently told a poet acquaintance over dinner that I was writing found poetry and she could not disguise her distaste. Not that she tried. Smile. Oh well. Five years ago, it seemed an odd pursuit to me, too.
Anyway, Mary Ruefle takes a 41-page pamphlet from 1889 and whites out most of the text to find a short poem on each page, some as short as six words. It’s as if the constraint has freed her. The results seem reckless and weird and are often very funny. The reader is still looking at the original pamphlet but it has been smeared with white-out fluid, somewhat sloppily to be honest, but I found that part of the charm.
One of my favorites, without its ‘format,’ goes:
seven centuries of sobbing
gathered in the twilight
and had their pages
wandered through
Another is the short:
It
was my duty to keep
the piano filled with roses.
iammandyellen's review against another edition
3.0
It is incredible that within the framework of another, much-removed voice Ruefle can so deftly manage to raise her own.