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A review by sloatsj
Happiness by Jack Underwood
5.0
It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a poetry book so much. I enjoyed the fresh voice and imagination. I loved Underwood’s metaphors and similes, sometimes in the same sentence! Such as
Sometimes your sadness is a yacht
huge, white and expensive, like an anvil
dropped from heaven: how will we get onboard
up there, when it hurts our necks to look?
The best thing about this book is the tone. The title, after all, is "Happiness." But it isn’t effusive or in-your-face or even especially upbeat. The love poems remind me sometimes of ee cummings, but without the tumescent lust, sometimes of Kenneth Patchen, but without the sacredness. There’s even a "Love Poem to Myself," which begins
Your basic appetites and pale feet renew
my faith in evolution; when you slide drunk
into a bath all the palm trees in Miami burn
My favorite poems at the moment are “Love Poem to Myself,” “Poem of Fear for My Future Child,” “13 Say,” and “I promise when I lift your egg.”
There’s a very funny prank poem called “The Spooks.” I won’t spoil it.
Sometimes your sadness is a yacht
huge, white and expensive, like an anvil
dropped from heaven: how will we get onboard
up there, when it hurts our necks to look?
The best thing about this book is the tone. The title, after all, is "Happiness." But it isn’t effusive or in-your-face or even especially upbeat. The love poems remind me sometimes of ee cummings, but without the tumescent lust, sometimes of Kenneth Patchen, but without the sacredness. There’s even a "Love Poem to Myself," which begins
Your basic appetites and pale feet renew
my faith in evolution; when you slide drunk
into a bath all the palm trees in Miami burn
My favorite poems at the moment are “Love Poem to Myself,” “Poem of Fear for My Future Child,” “13 Say,” and “I promise when I lift your egg.”
There’s a very funny prank poem called “The Spooks.” I won’t spoil it.