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A review by sloatsj
Talk Poetry by Mairead Byrne
5.0
Mairead Byrne’s collection of prose poems Talk Poetry is going on three years old but it’s still as fresh as the smell of a new car. I love the green cover: Think energy. Think breath mints for the brain.
Like a lot of her fans, I discovered Mairead Byrne’s poetry through her blog, which houses a number of the poems in the collection. One of the first striking things is the voice – funny, open, and ready to take on the world. Everything is fair game, even terrorism, as in this excerpt from “The Tired Terrorist:”
“The terrorist was tired. Goddammit he said, I could do with some bacon & eggs. He was sick to the back teeth of killing. It was ugly. He’d had enough. He laid down his shotgun, his nail-gun, his knife. He emptied his pockets. He unzipped his jacket. He thought of the spare room in his mother’s house.”
What I particularly like about these poems is the diction. They read like someone talking, and can careen off into unselfconscious monologues, or bend away on a hilarious tangent. This, for example, is the beginning of “Quick Movie,” one of my favorites -
“I had to watch the movie very fast because I was going out. The valedictorian. The guy. His sister. Her father. Inexplicable love. The break-up. Jail time. On a plane to England . Good movie!”
Or this from “The Russian Week:”
“Inside this week is another week & inside that week is another week & inside that week is another week & inside that is another week & inside that is another week & inside that week is another week so that instead of 7 days each week is actually composed of 7 weeks each one a little smaller than its container week but still workable & with rosy cheeks.”
Byrne’s poetry is offbeat and highly original. Reading it is like eavesdropping on an interesting conversation. It makes you want to get a good look at the person talking, to get their take on things. In this book, you’ll find Byrne’s take on divorce, parking, family photographs, shingles and whether you can die from eating pancakes. I’m still not sure is “Talk Poetry” is a kind of poetry, with “talk” as a modifier, or an invitation, as in “let’s talk poetry.”
I love this book.
Like a lot of her fans, I discovered Mairead Byrne’s poetry through her blog, which houses a number of the poems in the collection. One of the first striking things is the voice – funny, open, and ready to take on the world. Everything is fair game, even terrorism, as in this excerpt from “The Tired Terrorist:”
“The terrorist was tired. Goddammit he said, I could do with some bacon & eggs. He was sick to the back teeth of killing. It was ugly. He’d had enough. He laid down his shotgun, his nail-gun, his knife. He emptied his pockets. He unzipped his jacket. He thought of the spare room in his mother’s house.”
What I particularly like about these poems is the diction. They read like someone talking, and can careen off into unselfconscious monologues, or bend away on a hilarious tangent. This, for example, is the beginning of “Quick Movie,” one of my favorites -
“I had to watch the movie very fast because I was going out. The valedictorian. The guy. His sister. Her father. Inexplicable love. The break-up. Jail time. On a plane to England . Good movie!”
Or this from “The Russian Week:”
“Inside this week is another week & inside that week is another week & inside that week is another week & inside that is another week & inside that is another week & inside that week is another week so that instead of 7 days each week is actually composed of 7 weeks each one a little smaller than its container week but still workable & with rosy cheeks.”
Byrne’s poetry is offbeat and highly original. Reading it is like eavesdropping on an interesting conversation. It makes you want to get a good look at the person talking, to get their take on things. In this book, you’ll find Byrne’s take on divorce, parking, family photographs, shingles and whether you can die from eating pancakes. I’m still not sure is “Talk Poetry” is a kind of poetry, with “talk” as a modifier, or an invitation, as in “let’s talk poetry.”
I love this book.