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toniclark's review
3.0
I enjoyed the collection, some poems more than others. I particularly like the ones in which the poet reminisces about his father who ran a bakery and baked rolls, pies, and coffee cakes in the predawn hours to sell to mill workers just coming off or starting a shift ("Sweet Things").
Also liked the school poem -- e.g., "Standing Around the Heart," "The Uses of Rain," "Miss Hartung Teaches the Importance of Fruit," "During Sixth Grade," The Signs of Life on Mars." There are also several poems based on or inspired by historical events -- e.g., false alerts of Soviet missiles in flight in 1979 and 1980, the painting elephant at the Phoenix Zoo, the underground mine fire beneath Centralia, Pennsylvania.
Occasionally the wording in the poems baffled me a bit, or seemed unnecessarily awkward. This is compounded by the fact that the poet capitalizes the first word of all lines, which led me to misread sometimes (thinking that a new sentence was starting when it wasn't).
For example, the following threw me:
My wife, when I first knew her, followed me
Into a bar I loved for chili dogs.
Three, I ordered, a large basket of fries,
A pitcher of beer, and Liz humored me,
Smiled and chattered and went so suddenly
Silent I thought she'd choked on an ice cube
From her drink.
Line 3, the word "Three." I kept reading that over and over, wondering what were One and Two? Finally figured out that he ordered three chili dogs. Why not just say "I ordered three"?
Liked "The Limber Buildings" very much, probably my favorite.
Also liked the school poem -- e.g., "Standing Around the Heart," "The Uses of Rain," "Miss Hartung Teaches the Importance of Fruit," "During Sixth Grade," The Signs of Life on Mars." There are also several poems based on or inspired by historical events -- e.g., false alerts of Soviet missiles in flight in 1979 and 1980, the painting elephant at the Phoenix Zoo, the underground mine fire beneath Centralia, Pennsylvania.
Occasionally the wording in the poems baffled me a bit, or seemed unnecessarily awkward. This is compounded by the fact that the poet capitalizes the first word of all lines, which led me to misread sometimes (thinking that a new sentence was starting when it wasn't).
For example, the following threw me:
My wife, when I first knew her, followed me
Into a bar I loved for chili dogs.
Three, I ordered, a large basket of fries,
A pitcher of beer, and Liz humored me,
Smiled and chattered and went so suddenly
Silent I thought she'd choked on an ice cube
From her drink.
Line 3, the word "Three." I kept reading that over and over, wondering what were One and Two? Finally figured out that he ordered three chili dogs. Why not just say "I ordered three"?
Liked "The Limber Buildings" very much, probably my favorite.
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