A review by thebeardedpoet
Dome of the Hidden Pavilion: New Poems by James Tate

Dome of the Hidden Pavilion, James Tate's poetry collection, mystifies me. In "Toy Soldiers" there's a dialogue between the speaker and a toy solider who is annoyed at being removed from the window sill. In "The Battlefield" the speaker gets a call from a friend who has heard from an ant that there is an ant battle going on in the speaker's backyard--and he wants to bet on the outcome. The pieces here seem like flash fiction with an insane point of view rather than poetry. Of course an argument could be made for their status as poems, since this is a form of art made from words. I guess my biggest problem is I'm not clicking with the dream logic of the narratives. There are jumps and leaps from reality based moments to impossibly surreal experiences. Usually I like dream-like and surreal writing, but there's something about the speakers of these poems that doesn't carry me along. Is it that the language is so plain and simple? Is that the flights of fancy seem so extremely bizarre?