Scan barcode
A review by xterminal
Strong is Your Hold by Galway Kinnell
4.0
Galway Kinnell, Strong Is Your Hold (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
I have to admit that up until now I've never run across a Galway Kinnell poem I've liked. I rather expected to pick this up, skim through it, write a generic bad review, and move on. But it seems Kinnell has (with the exception of one more-of-the-same poem) mellowed out a great deal as he's gotten older and turned his thoughts to interpersonal, rather than global, politics:
“Now beings what could be called
carpenters' arm wrestling, and also,
in this case, transrealmic combat
between father and son.
We clasp right hands (the flared
part of the hammer handle,
his hand) and press right elbows
tot he hemlock (the curved
hammer head, his steel elbow) and pull.
Or rather, I pull, he holds fast, lacking
the writ to drag me down where he lies.
(“Pulling a Nail”)
Not the kind of thing that seems tailor-made for plastering on a placard and taking down to Washington when marching in a demonstration. And thank heaven for that. When Kinnell focuses his attention on the little things, globally, that mean so much to us on a personal level, he shines. A very pleasant surprise. *** ½
I have to admit that up until now I've never run across a Galway Kinnell poem I've liked. I rather expected to pick this up, skim through it, write a generic bad review, and move on. But it seems Kinnell has (with the exception of one more-of-the-same poem) mellowed out a great deal as he's gotten older and turned his thoughts to interpersonal, rather than global, politics:
“Now beings what could be called
carpenters' arm wrestling, and also,
in this case, transrealmic combat
between father and son.
We clasp right hands (the flared
part of the hammer handle,
his hand) and press right elbows
tot he hemlock (the curved
hammer head, his steel elbow) and pull.
Or rather, I pull, he holds fast, lacking
the writ to drag me down where he lies.
(“Pulling a Nail”)
Not the kind of thing that seems tailor-made for plastering on a placard and taking down to Washington when marching in a demonstration. And thank heaven for that. When Kinnell focuses his attention on the little things, globally, that mean so much to us on a personal level, he shines. A very pleasant surprise. *** ½