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We Are All Good If They Try Hard Enough
by
Mike Young (Goodreads Author)
What if our feelings were just holograms in expensive greeting cards? Is there anything wrong with being quietly astonished, or are you obliged to turn and tell somebody? If you tell them, will they know? WE ARE ALL GOOD IF THEY TRY HARD ENOUGH treats language to breakfast, fiddles over language's doomed project of intimacy with sweetness and red eyes. From maple ice cream...more
Paperback, 80 pages
Published
September 22nd 2010
by Publishing Genius Press
(first published September 2010)
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what's really nice about this book is that it's totally wild in a way that poetry rarely lets itself be anymore. i kept dog-earing pages. saying whole sections out loud. wanting to sneak pieces out and cut them up to keep in my pocket. flawed? yes. beautiful? yes, even more so.
I kind of hate this type of poetry. So clever! So in-the-now! You won't even notice it's not very good because of the references to pop culture! YOUR GENERATION!
I threw this book, but not very hard.
I threw this book, but not very hard.
I just reread this today, hands-down one of my favorite books of 2010!!!!!!!! It made the TOP PICKS of Believer Magazine http://www.believermag.com/issues/201...
It's definitely a book of poetry you WILL return to and read from cover to cover. This 2nd reading, I loved all that I loved the first time, but saw other poems anew. My new favorite piece in the book is a poem Mike Young calls, "My Heart Is a Small Yellow Emoticon / Wearing a Cowboy Hat in the Snow" which I'll retype for you. If you are...more
It's definitely a book of poetry you WILL return to and read from cover to cover. This 2nd reading, I loved all that I loved the first time, but saw other poems anew. My new favorite piece in the book is a poem Mike Young calls, "My Heart Is a Small Yellow Emoticon / Wearing a Cowboy Hat in the Snow" which I'll retype for you. If you are...more
I made a video review of this book at http://www.wingchairbooks.com
You can watch it here: http://www.wingchairbooks.com/2011/02...
You can watch it here: http://www.wingchairbooks.com/2011/02...
1 like · like · see review
Mike Young is a young writer overflowing with unrestrained talent. There are times when i do wish his poems would follow a straighter line but I can't complain too much. There are enough great lines amidst his exploded thoughts and slangy distractions that make each poem sparkle in your brain. Here are what two consecutive lines in a Mike Young poem look like:
You make me feel like using the stove to light a cigarette is a photo op. Wait, you have a bank account set aside for laser tattoo remova...more
You make me feel like using the stove to light a cigarette is a photo op. Wait, you have a bank account set aside for laser tattoo remova...more
So it's always good to read more poetry, right? Right.
When I started reading this, I was only going to give it 3 stars because the poems felt very melancholy to me, but by the end, I was really getting into it and I think they took a turn towards being more happy.
I was trying to think of a way to write a review that gives this book justice: maybe if I typed out the last sentence of each poem, you'd get a good idea. You'd also end up with a new poem that would pretty much work as well as cohesive...more
When I started reading this, I was only going to give it 3 stars because the poems felt very melancholy to me, but by the end, I was really getting into it and I think they took a turn towards being more happy.
I was trying to think of a way to write a review that gives this book justice: maybe if I typed out the last sentence of each poem, you'd get a good idea. You'd also end up with a new poem that would pretty much work as well as cohesive...more
Not that far through, maybe five or six poems so far, but yes. I like. Even though some of it I don't understand as fully as I would like, there are lines, images, and moments that blow me away.
Hip, dude. This is a cool book of poems--no sarcasm. It's modern in subject matter and style, and I don't know how he made such temporal triviality timeless. Brilliant.
Mike's poems are great, they are works to be read out loud, they are very very funny, and the man himself is brilliant in delivering them.
These poems are about the crazy culture of being alive. They are surprising and witty and honest. They get so casual, then back up so grand.
i love it but i don't understand why 'giggle or stop it' isn't for me anymore
My review for this book can be found on my blog, The Lies and The Laughter. http://caseymensing.blogspot.com/2010...
I read this before I go on dates!
these poems know how to romp.
also they womp.
and stomp.
they never let the beat nnn-dromp.
this is some of the most enjoyable poetry i've read in a while
and it comes straight from the center of mike young's beautiful little, soul
live via satellite. i recommend this book to anyone
who believes that it is possible, in another dimension, to live without sin.
also they womp.
and stomp.
they never let the beat nnn-dromp.
this is some of the most enjoyable poetry i've read in a while
and it comes straight from the center of mike young's beautiful little, soul
live via satellite. i recommend this book to anyone
who believes that it is possible, in another dimension, to live without sin.
Look, I don't think that suffering is requisite to making art but I do think the sensitivity that renders so many of us clams-sans-shells is what also compels us to write poetry. Mike Young takes that propensity to hold the inward gaze too long and flips it out good in the name of Dr. Pepper, Motel 6, and in the name of L-O-V-E. He has like 10,000 kind eyes.
it's like an intimate conversation with a friendly schizophrenic who grew up in the bosom of Big Mac'd America.
This came very close to being 5 stars for me. There were a lot of poems here that were extremely inventive and fun. Mike Young is the real deal!
If you get a chance to hear Mike read his poetry, don't miss it. This is a wonderful book, but the work is even better when he speaks it.
Was writing down so many great lines and then I realized all I was doing was writing a shorter Mike Young poem.
May 20, 2013
Aya
marked it as to-read
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Mike Young is the author of the poetry collection
We Are All Good If They Try Hard Enough
(Publishing Genius 2010), the story collection
Look! Look! Feathers
(Word Riot Press 2010), and the chapbook MC Oroville's Answering Machine (Transmission Press 2009). He runs
NOÖ Journal
and Magic Helicopter Press.
More about Mike Young...
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Feb 05, 2011 07:31am