Reviews

Thunderbird by Dorothea Lasky

big_goose's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This isn't the kind of poetry [I think] I like, but I was really into this collection. The way that she states and develops concepts just really worked for me, often in ways that I didn't expect. I usually don't like work that seems too internal, but here I felt that the poems managed to make internal states - even when they were quite dark - somehow welcoming. The poems do more to come towards the reader than just about anything else I have read recently.

Here's one short poem that I really liked:

Why Go in Cars
After Bernadette Mayer's translation of Catullus #48

Why go in cars
They can be destroyed
I don't want to be destroyed by you
I love you and your want
We don't need cars
Why don't we sit in a sea of violets
I could kiss you a million times
And never be sick of it
Let's go sit in some flowers
Darling boy
Let's sit in a sea of flames
And I will never put the fire
Out of you

*
There were a couple of poems that I wasn't into, and it was usually because they felt less welcoming or more dependent directly on the writer's self or personal experience, but this didn't happen often. I would recommend this book to just about anybody, since I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

cowboytreen's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

nick_jenkins's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Some truly amazing individual poems: “I had a man,” “Death and Sylvia Plath,” “You are beautiful,” “What poets should do,” “Dog,” “Gender,” “Two assholes,” “Genius,” and “The changing of the seasons is life and death seen gently.”

kylefwill's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

Not my favorite Lasky.

werdfert's review

Go to review page

4.0

This book is 2 parts darkness, 3 parts light, 15 parts thunderbird.

cwwh's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

These poems carry a kind of ferocity that I wasn't expecting when I started, but maybe the title should have been my clue. The way they read on the page made me go back two and even three times to a poem just to re-read it and hear it out loud, how the words came together. This felt like challenging poetry, which, personally, I liked.

heypretty52's review

Go to review page

3.0

There are powerful turns of phrase in this collection, but there is not a complete piece that worked for me.

discolorised's review

Go to review page

4.0

Who to tell no one cares when no one cares
No one takes the time to care for a monster

I care for monsters
But only because I am one





nick_jenkins's review

Go to review page

5.0

Some truly amazing individual poems: “I had a man,” “Death and Sylvia Plath,” “You are beautiful,” “What poets should do,” “Dog,” “Gender,” “Two assholes,” “Genius,” and “The changing of the seasons is life and death seen gently.”

hizatulakmah's review

Go to review page

4.0

Who to tell no one cares when no one cares
No one takes the time to care for a monster

I care for monsters
But only because I am one





More...