Review Archives - Page 50 of 85

rev. of Hurdy Gurdy by Tim Seibles

Hurdy Gurdy Poems by Tim Seibles. Cleveland State University Press, $10.00 paper. Reviewed by Tony Hoagland. Appetite, revenge, and celebration are the animating energies in Tim Seibles’s generous-hearted and rambunctious first collection, Hurdy Gurdy. As the title implies, this is street music of a kind, alternately plaintive and rapturous as it explores issues of adulthood…

Intricate Moves by Joan Swift

Madeline DeFrees recommends Intricate Moves, poems and an essay by Joan Swift: “One of the Northwest’s best poets collects her poems dealing with rape-both those originally included in The Dark Path of Our Names (Dragon Gate) and later poems. Swift is the winner of three NEA grants, the most recent being the only one awarded…

Lies of the Saints by Erin McGraw

Rosellen Brown recommends Lies of the Saints, stories by Erin McGraw: “These stories are wonderfully understated glimpses of believable lives, of men, women, and-in the title novella-children in uneasy embrace, trying for honesty and grace, and sometimes succeeding.” Reviewed in “Bookshelf” on page 239. (Chronicle)

rev. of Hurricane Walk by Diann Blakely Shoaf

In her poem "The Homeless in America," which appeared in the Twentieth Anniversary issue of this magazine, Diann Blakely Shoaf describes a photograph — on exhibit at Parthenon Centennial Park, Nashville — of a mother grooming her son's hair: "How do I even know the child's / alive? — his mother's half-smile / so naked…

rev. of Invisibilities by Douglas Worth

Douglas Worth is another encouraging young poet. The epigraph at the front of his book recalls Sarah Appleton's poetry — "What is essential is invisible to the eye." That this epigraph is a quote not from Teilhard or any similar source but from The Little Prince points at once to the weakness and the strength…

rev. of Lies of the Saints by Erin McGraw

Lies of the Saints Stories by Erin McGraw. Chronicle Books, $11.95 paper. Reviewed by Ann Harleman. “Life puts us in each other’s way,” one of Erin McGraw’s characters tells another. That is the beauty of this first collection: the characters — so real that I hesitate, wanting to use the word “people” instead — engage…

rev. of Hush by David St. John

In Hush, by David St. John, we see a conscious movement away from the lyrical voice, to a simpler, more prose-like form. This tendency in poetry is at least sixty years old now, if we trace it to the Imagist school, and much older and more universal if we consider the efforts at plain speech…

Invisible Horses by Patricia Goedicke

Maxine Kumin recommends Invisible Horses, poems by Patricia Goedicke: “These poems are about subjective and objective realities of the hidden impulses we live by-very powerful and innovative: ‘. . . wondering / what strings us together, self / and self-image, and the words for it . . .’ ” (Milkweed)

Life in Double Time: Confessions of an American Drummer by Mike Lankford

James Alan McPherson recommends Life in Double Time: Confessions of an American Drummer, a memoir by Mike Lankford: “A very unpretentious account of the riff-style lifestyle of dedicated musicians. This is an excellent, humorous account of rock and roll.” (Chronicle)