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3.56 AVERAGE
3.56 AVERAGE
A near perfect book of poetry. Delightfully irreverent in parts. Small gems of pop culture references peek out of some of the poems. All are fantastic. One regret: the typesetting didn't allow enough room on the page for the poems; the bottom margin of the page was at times less than half an inch. Poems need room!
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not one for Poetry, unless read to me. So to buy a book of poems—for myself—seemed a bit absurd. The title caught me and made me shell out the clams but the poems—well those are keeping it in my bookshelf.
Paul’s style (which remember here, I’m not a poetry gal) is fun. It took me a few poems to get into his rhythm. But once in step, brilliance ensues. I’m sure my favorite poem will change daily, however right now I’m in love with Audio Commentary Track 1. How perfect is the line, “That we all forgot to rig the microphones/really does challenge the audience/to stay with the story by reading lips”
Mixed with humor, snippiness, and emotion, these poems speak to everyone.
Paul’s style (which remember here, I’m not a poetry gal) is fun. It took me a few poems to get into his rhythm. But once in step, brilliance ensues. I’m sure my favorite poem will change daily, however right now I’m in love with Audio Commentary Track 1. How perfect is the line, “That we all forgot to rig the microphones/really does challenge the audience/to stay with the story by reading lips”
Mixed with humor, snippiness, and emotion, these poems speak to everyone.
It's a good book. I like Guest's dense, linked, writing style, although it took a few poems to get used to it.
This book has been recommended to me many times, I often see it at bookstores and I've even seen people I don't know reading it.
Almost every poem is one stanza, and there were some times I really could have used a stanza break to catch my breath. Overall, one stanza suits the dense, waterfalling words.
Although I like Guest's poem titles when they are specific: "User's Guide to Physical Debilitation" and "Elegy for the Lumbering Monster," I don't like the titles that could be exchanged for other titles: "Poem Written to Replace Another" and "Poem Written Outside Wintry Mix."
My favorites in this book:
Bad Mood: This poem really captures the bad mood. Some days just feel like everything is wrong.
Valentine: There are stanzas in this poem! I like the dreaminess of the poem, and love how he describes himself on the ocean floor with a shell and claws.
My Crush: The description of pain in the body as shimmering, and the "spines full of wire" were beautiful. There is a gorgeous longing in this.
Job: This poem is really funny, and sad. I love poems about working in an office.
This book has been recommended to me many times, I often see it at bookstores and I've even seen people I don't know reading it.
Almost every poem is one stanza, and there were some times I really could have used a stanza break to catch my breath. Overall, one stanza suits the dense, waterfalling words.
Although I like Guest's poem titles when they are specific: "User's Guide to Physical Debilitation" and "Elegy for the Lumbering Monster," I don't like the titles that could be exchanged for other titles: "Poem Written to Replace Another" and "Poem Written Outside Wintry Mix."
My favorites in this book:
Bad Mood: This poem really captures the bad mood. Some days just feel like everything is wrong.
Valentine: There are stanzas in this poem! I like the dreaminess of the poem, and love how he describes himself on the ocean floor with a shell and claws.
My Crush: The description of pain in the body as shimmering, and the "spines full of wire" were beautiful. There is a gorgeous longing in this.
Job: This poem is really funny, and sad. I love poems about working in an office.
“Which is to say I don't / recall a thing that I dreamed last night, / the color of anything, the tenebrous custard of clouds, / the water that fell in shapes / from the elm trees. Really, what I'm thinking / tonight is there is nothing / in all the flat world which would satisfy me. Not food and not love and no / Epicurean kink involving both / and in this I am trying to feel only / a little sad. Slightly broken. / Returnable, still, even to the ones I loved, / their darling, imperious airs, / their hair in careless garlands / announcing one more morning or one last.”
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
medium-paced
gonna keep it real with y’all, I wouldn’t have finished this if I didn’t have a personal policy against DNFing books I choose to read
My favorite poems in this book: "Loyalty Oath," "My Past" ("There are things I know of so little worth I resent them their place in this pot of meat my head is."), "Remember How Sad That Was Then," "Regarding Your Applications for Many Imaginary Positions," "Job," and "Travel."
I have to admit, I'm not the world's most patient reader of poetry. I get bored kind of quickly if the poems are too esoteric and I have a hard time with sing-song rhyming schemes. My favorites are Dryden and Pope, with a little Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath thrown in. I've tried to expand my range but attempts often end in half-finished books and a feeling of failure. All of which is to say that I was really amazed when I started flipping through this book at a poetry bookstore (Open Books in Seattle). The opening lines of each poem not only set the tone but somehow capture you right away -- like this one from "Oblivion: Letter Home 2":
Thanks for the cucumber lotion and coupons
you cut out of the Sunday paper
though I had to bury them in an old thermos
or sink them with bricks and twine
so nobody killed me. Reading the obituary
for Mr. Kondrackie was sad
though he once beat me with his cane
for guessing wrong. We all have our faults,
I think....
I'm not clever enough with poetry to explain why that grips me so hard, but pretty much every poem in the volume does it to me. Guest has been paraplegic since age 12 and writes with a stick in his mouth. Many of the poems convey the anger, frustration and sexual longing that you might expect from someone whose physical abilities are so much more limited than his emotional and intellectual ones. He published a memoir in 2010 (_One More Theory About Happiness_); I can't wait to read it!
Thanks for the cucumber lotion and coupons
you cut out of the Sunday paper
though I had to bury them in an old thermos
or sink them with bricks and twine
so nobody killed me. Reading the obituary
for Mr. Kondrackie was sad
though he once beat me with his cane
for guessing wrong. We all have our faults,
I think....
I'm not clever enough with poetry to explain why that grips me so hard, but pretty much every poem in the volume does it to me. Guest has been paraplegic since age 12 and writes with a stick in his mouth. Many of the poems convey the anger, frustration and sexual longing that you might expect from someone whose physical abilities are so much more limited than his emotional and intellectual ones. He published a memoir in 2010 (_One More Theory About Happiness_); I can't wait to read it!
2.5 stars. as a disabled person i had high hopes for this. unfortunately i couldn’t get past the way Guest referred to women and his relationships with women. read very patriarchal/borderline misogynistic to me.