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zoemig's review
2.0
"Even these words
have predecessors by the millions
from my very hand, but still
I write them as the first
and final words I’ll write."
I admit I was disappointed with Like a Man Gone Mad: Poems in a New Century, the latest collection by Samuel Hazo. It's not that I had ever read Hazo before, so I had no expectations going in. However the first dozen or so poems made me think this was going to be an incredible book and I had discovered a brilliant poet. Somewhere however, the brilliance gets lost to observation instead of poetry, to structured political statements instead of passionate outbursts. Hazo is clearly intelligent, but I don't read poetry for intelligence- I read it for genius. Although the beginning of the collection Like a Man Gone Mad soars, the majority of the poems simply fall flat.
Ironically where Hazo excels are in the poems regarding the art of writing poetry which comprise the first section of the book "Briefly in Attendence". His strength is epitomized by the very first poem in the collection "To The Next Poem", where he writes to the poem as if it were a living breathing organism, a comparison I find powerful. However Hazo often excludes himself from his own poetry in a way that feels cold and impersonal. For example, "Kings of Swing" reads more like a list of observations- something Hazo actually mocks Walt Whitman for- as well as a history of jazz, than a poem. There is also the occasional cliche, in "Say Cheese" Hazo mentions the idea that "being photographed/ permitted the photographer to steal/ your soul" a concept I've heard a few too many times for it to be a poignant way to end a poem. In section 7- "In The Name of Candor" Hazo gets political, with poems like "Tell it to the Marines" where he writes that "half the governments / on earth are run by murderers, / elected or imposed" it seems like an attempt at controversial political statements more than actual poetry. So although Like a Man Gone Mad is a collection with potential it feels like Hazo is still needs to find a balance in his attempt to capture both history and the emotion behind it. **
have predecessors by the millions
from my very hand, but still
I write them as the first
and final words I’ll write."
I admit I was disappointed with Like a Man Gone Mad: Poems in a New Century, the latest collection by Samuel Hazo. It's not that I had ever read Hazo before, so I had no expectations going in. However the first dozen or so poems made me think this was going to be an incredible book and I had discovered a brilliant poet. Somewhere however, the brilliance gets lost to observation instead of poetry, to structured political statements instead of passionate outbursts. Hazo is clearly intelligent, but I don't read poetry for intelligence- I read it for genius. Although the beginning of the collection Like a Man Gone Mad soars, the majority of the poems simply fall flat.
Ironically where Hazo excels are in the poems regarding the art of writing poetry which comprise the first section of the book "Briefly in Attendence". His strength is epitomized by the very first poem in the collection "To The Next Poem", where he writes to the poem as if it were a living breathing organism, a comparison I find powerful. However Hazo often excludes himself from his own poetry in a way that feels cold and impersonal. For example, "Kings of Swing" reads more like a list of observations- something Hazo actually mocks Walt Whitman for- as well as a history of jazz, than a poem. There is also the occasional cliche, in "Say Cheese" Hazo mentions the idea that "being photographed/ permitted the photographer to steal/ your soul" a concept I've heard a few too many times for it to be a poignant way to end a poem. In section 7- "In The Name of Candor" Hazo gets political, with poems like "Tell it to the Marines" where he writes that "half the governments / on earth are run by murderers, / elected or imposed" it seems like an attempt at controversial political statements more than actual poetry. So although Like a Man Gone Mad is a collection with potential it feels like Hazo is still needs to find a balance in his attempt to capture both history and the emotion behind it. **
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