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A review by darrin
American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time by Tracy K. Smith
This little anthology sort of took my breath away. Some of the poets were names I knew but most were new to me. One poem that really stood out for me was In Defense of Small Towns by Oliver de la Paz. Written in 2 line stanzas, it is a longish poem and starts out with the narrator hating life in the small town of his past but then each stanza carefully describes a past memory so that you see the evolution of his thoughts until finally the ending describes how he wants to take his son back there to the small town of my youth and ends with,
to run with a cattail in his hand and watch as its seeds
fly weightless as though nothing mattered, as though
the little things we tell ourselves about our pasts stay there,
rising slightly and just out of reach.
I picked up the two books of poetry by de la Paz they had at our local library, [b:Post Subject: A Fable|20522275|Post Subject A Fable|Oliver de la Paz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390431791s/20522275.jpg|36714853] and [b:Names Above Houses|21860768|Names Above Houses|Oliver de la Paz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410771512s/21860768.jpg|77715]. I am looking forward to reading them as well as many other books by poets I discovered in this book.
Definitely find it if you can.
to run with a cattail in his hand and watch as its seeds
fly weightless as though nothing mattered, as though
the little things we tell ourselves about our pasts stay there,
rising slightly and just out of reach.
I picked up the two books of poetry by de la Paz they had at our local library, [b:Post Subject: A Fable|20522275|Post Subject A Fable|Oliver de la Paz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390431791s/20522275.jpg|36714853] and [b:Names Above Houses|21860768|Names Above Houses|Oliver de la Paz|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1410771512s/21860768.jpg|77715]. I am looking forward to reading them as well as many other books by poets I discovered in this book.
Definitely find it if you can.