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grayjay's review against another edition
4.0
A collection of poetry preceded by a forward that offers the sources of its inspiration. Howe mined history, art, her personal history, books on language, books on poetry, and came up with a haunting book of poetic art. Tiny art objects made from cut up and arranged texts, and short poems that echo the obscured reading of cut-up texts.
I admit I didn't read much meaning from this book besides the lovely feeling of reading/wading through text, the fun of discovery, the pleasure of puzzling language.
I admit I didn't read much meaning from this book besides the lovely feeling of reading/wading through text, the fun of discovery, the pleasure of puzzling language.
chillcox15's review against another edition
4.0
Kind of like abrasive blasts of experimental neoclassical music in poetry format. I dig it.
davenash's review against another edition
3.0
This is the avante-garde today in poetry.
Three sections resemble traditional poems, but they are brief and patchwork. Two other sections are like print collages.
Howe is interested typos and smudged. The title of the books is a play on the debts, deaths, and depths. Maybe this is her last work. Howe is a total Boston Brahman. Her dad was a Harvard Law prof and her mother an Irish actress. So she focused on New England history and the rule against perpetuities - fun times.
"A work of art is a world of sings, at lest to the poet's
nursery book shelf shelter behind the artist ear.
I recall each little motto howl its ins and outs
to those of us who might as well be on the moon
illu illu illu"
This is the first poem which is a better forward than her actual intro which while in prose manages to be spacey and confusing like her verse. It was interesting to read but not a keeper for me.
Three sections resemble traditional poems, but they are brief and patchwork. Two other sections are like print collages.
Howe is interested typos and smudged. The title of the books is a play on the debts, deaths, and depths. Maybe this is her last work. Howe is a total Boston Brahman. Her dad was a Harvard Law prof and her mother an Irish actress. So she focused on New England history and the rule against perpetuities - fun times.
"A work of art is a world of sings, at lest to the poet's
nursery book shelf shelter behind the artist ear.
I recall each little motto howl its ins and outs
to those of us who might as well be on the moon
illu illu illu"
This is the first poem which is a better forward than her actual intro which while in prose manages to be spacey and confusing like her verse. It was interesting to read but not a keeper for me.
alexlanz's review against another edition
Fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and nonsense words are always ready to hand for modern writers. They give access to an older current of language, which can re-emerge in subtle ways from either semantic drift or cutting up text laterally in a collage. But what does that have to with what it's really about, which is late T.S. Eliot?
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