A review by skitch41
Fast: Poems by Jorie Graham

1.0

This year I have been on a bit of a poetry kick, trying to immerse myself in this difficult genre. I have read some really good collections and some okay ones, but I hadn’t read one that I actively disliked. Until this collection that is. For a genre that oftentimes reads very quick, Ms. Graham’s poetry is incredibly long. Each poem could be several pages long with crap-ton of words on each page, which is unusual compared to other collections I have read so far. Now, this in and of itself wouldn’t be bad if the poems had some discernible them or purpose. But Ms. Graham’s doesn’t appear to have any. Each poem bounces from one subject to another, sometimes very quickly, giving me a sense of thematic whiplash. And there appears to be no discernible poetic style in these poems other than to be really long. The result is an alphabet soup of words that has no clear meaning or purpose. Other, more serious poetry readers may see something in this collection to enjoy, but I did not.