Follain’s impersonal perspective puts him, in Francis Ponge’s phrase, on the side of objects. The natural features and man-made things that fill his poems are given presences of their own, which Follain brings out with a sharp eye and an understanding of their place within the human world.
Tag: poetry
A review of Where do you live? by Hanaa Ahmad Jabr and Jennifer Jean
The job of creative individuals, then, is to bear witness to the horrors inflicted by those who would destroy “our distant spark of light.” We must resist and carry our light into the future. Our task, says Where do you live?, is to be constantly raw , constantly attuned to these insults. We must feel them, record them, and keep going.
A review of The Resemblance of All Things by Bernard J. Lurie
he book is divided into four parts. Each part is prefaced by a single prefatory line indicting that what follows is directed to a different biblical prophet. None of them speak in the poem. The prophets are addressed indirectly, through intermediaries of God, regarding matters about which they prophesied. It does not restate their views. Neither does the poem advocate on behalf of or against any faith.
A review of Level Watch by Mary Ardery
The speaker has a direct line that runs from her heart to the hearts of the women she is striving to help. At times this line becomes clogged, and there is a break, perhaps because of the strain of her own unresolved conflicts with drugs and alcohol, (Not uncommon in the field) but never to the detriment of the work. In fact, her brilliant honesty and self-doubt drew me in as a reader, leaving me to draw my own conclusions about how she was changed as a person as a result of this lived experience, which is what all good poetry invites us to do.
Alexis Rhone Fancher’s Poetry
The sequence of Rhone Fancher’s poetry is particularly inventive, offering a layered resonance that readers may find both empathetic and revealing. While its earlier stanzas carefully construct the scene, it is the ending that delivers the greatest impact — a twist shaped by irony, by the disparity of experience, and by an emotional and intellectual complexity that lingers long after the last line.
A review of Ring the Bells by Colleen Keating
This is a delightful collection – often thought provoking, sometimes poignant and always engaging. Keating understands the times in which we live. As she says in her introduction, it is: ‘a broken world with personal and collective emotions, pain of war and human travail that can bring us to our knees’. But gloom and desperation aren’t options for this fine lyric poet.
A review of Precarious by Judith Pacht
I marveled at how Pacht is a poet in constant absorption. From a Hammacher Schlemmer catalog to lines from fellow poets to topics like electrical currents and plastic surgery pulled from the news, the poet is a deliberate sponge whose words in the end are selected across a world of inspiration.
A review of Chords in the Soundscapes by Michael J. Leach
One of the opening epigraphs by Brenda Eldridge likens music to ekphrastic poetry, but the poetry in this book is often ekphrasis based on music, taking its cue from the experience of listening. The result is poetry that is descriptive, rhythmic and often catchy in the way that popular music can be.
Redemption Songs: A review of The Wreck of Your Life on the Evening News by Roy Bentley
When he says “Movies are what we have in the United States of America / to save of from some poverty of Spirit,” (99) he speaks for humankind. That he does so in words that are passionate, elegant, and honest is his readers’ good fortune. Roy Bentley is one of the best poets writing in English, and The Wreck of Your Life on the Evening News is his best book to date.
A review of The Tao According to Calvin Coolidge by Charles Rammelkamp
Here, as elsewhere in this fine collection, Rammelkamp’s poetical plain style doesn’t attempt to call attention to its cleverness, but mirrors Coolidge’s own reserved eloquence. Or as Abraham Lincoln once ironically opined: if you keep your mouth shut, people will think you’re a fool. If you open it, they’ll know for sure.