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77th out of 101 books
—
90 voters
Snowflake / different streets
by
Eileen Myles
In her first book of poetry since 2007, legendary poet, critic, and novelist Eileen Myles creates poet and poem anew as she pushes the boundaries of her craft ever closer to the enigmatic core. Snowflake finds the poet awash in an extended and distressed landscape mediated by technology and its distortion of time and space. In different streets, the poet returns home, to t...more
Paperback, 232 pages
Published
April 3rd 2012
by Wave Books
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I hate to give a bad rating to something that I know "isn't my thing," so I'll give this volume of poetry by Eileen Myles 3 stars.
I have a hard time wrapping my head around poetry, especially that which falls into the vein of being more symbolic, with less-than-concrete imagery. I'm sure some people will find inspiration and beauty in Myles' work; I struggled to find the cadence to read any of the works.
One poem is simply two words stacked on top of one another. (What?!)
I liked that the book w...more
I have a hard time wrapping my head around poetry, especially that which falls into the vein of being more symbolic, with less-than-concrete imagery. I'm sure some people will find inspiration and beauty in Myles' work; I struggled to find the cadence to read any of the works.
One poem is simply two words stacked on top of one another. (What?!)
I liked that the book w...more
Snowflake (new poems) was awesome. when i grow up i aspire to be Eileen Myles, if i don't get to be JD Salinger or Richard Brautigan. she writes a lot about the sun and being in the dark and being in crazy love with all sorts of females. it makes me feel ok about having females come and go in my life.
wasn't as into Different Streets (newer poems). i think these are mostly poems about/for her current girlfriend. maybe being too crazy in love with someone doesn't make for as good poems as losing t...more
wasn't as into Different Streets (newer poems). i think these are mostly poems about/for her current girlfriend. maybe being too crazy in love with someone doesn't make for as good poems as losing t...more
Attracted by her biting wit and flowing line, I sought Myles out after hearing her on a Poetry Foundation podcast. After all, aren't we all on the lookout for what I took to be a working-class, lesbian version of Fred Seidel? Unfortunately, the only poem here that lived up to my expectations was on the "different streets" side of the house, called "the perfect faceless fish". The rest were stranded in traffic on a California freeway or faded away before the page was even turned.
Snowflake was a wonderful volume, full of thick words and more intangible topics. different streets was not as moving for me, I think in part because the topics were more straightforward and the approach verbally sparse.
At the end of different streets, Myles mentions that many of these 'newer poems' were transcriptions of older pieces, and that's somewhat how the poems feel to me-- quick, ephemeral, and fleeting, like they could vanish into air without leaving a trace of their weight.
At the end of different streets, Myles mentions that many of these 'newer poems' were transcriptions of older pieces, and that's somewhat how the poems feel to me-- quick, ephemeral, and fleeting, like they could vanish into air without leaving a trace of their weight.
The SNOWFLAKE side I found way more engaging and interesting than the DIFFERENT STREETS side. SNOWFLAKE played a lot more with language, which is sort of a thing I like, where as DIFFERENT STREETS tended to stay more toward the point and was less interested in such play. Both good, but one half is the more successful sibling.
Nice spare lines, down to the bone, honest. It's that so-called minimalist style of poetry influenced by haiku's compression--difficult to master, to sound natural and not solipsistic.
Some of the poems in this double volume were so amazing they blew me away, but other poems weren't as great to me. So I liked it, but it didn't blow me away like Sorry, Tree did.
It's quite nice when you can cull beauty and inspiration from something that isn't quite your style. These poems confused and left me ancy, anxious to get writing my own answers to them.
I wrote a review of Snowflake / Different Streets over at Revising Loneliness:
http://revisingloneliness.com/2012/07...
http://revisingloneliness.com/2012/07...
In her first book of poetry since 2007, legendary poet, critic, and novelist Eileen Myles creates poet and poem anew as she pushes the boundaries of her craft ever closer to the enigmatic core. Snowflake finds the poet awash in an extended and distressed landscape mediated by technology and its distortion of time and space. In different streets, the poet returns home, to the familiar world of human connection. Two books meet as one: more Eileen Myles, more indelible connection, more fleeting ecs...more
Snowflake/different streets features understated, sincere, quipp-ish poetry. Not sure if I like it yet.
one day i'll like the things people write after they're happy and mature
and then this will be my favorite
and then this will be my favorite
I like this pretty two-in-one book. My favorite was "different streets."
review forthcoming at The Nervous Breakdown
May 17, 2013
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Eileen Myles (born 1949, Cambridge, Massachusetts) is probably America's best-known unofficial poet. Her latest book is Sorry, Tree in which she describes “some nature” as well as the transmigration of souls from the east coast to the west. Bust Magazine calls Myles "the rock star of modern poetry" and Holland Cotter in The New York Times describes her as "a cult figure to a generation of post-pun...more
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