Rodney's review
Overtime: Selected Poems (Penguin Poets)
by Philip Whalen
Rodney's review
Overtime: Selected Poems (Penguin Poets) by Philip Whalen
Rodney's review
rating:
bookshelves:
poetry
Whalen's poems balance religion, philosophy and cranky Zen insight with a casual, conversational Americanese in a way few of his more famous contemporaries could touch. He draws from a deep past that embraces everything from ancient Chinese verse to European classical music, but makes all the erudition parade down the street in T-shirt and jeans. His particular brand of Buddhism, so generous to human failings (starting always, comically, with his own) and never, ever doctrinaire, has to be one of the most attractive spins on Eastern religion I've read. The moment gets plenty of wiggle room in his writing, so that cats, friends and silly thoughts can all stray into the poems without being shoo'd out for the sake of art. Whatever Beat meant, Whalen shows it in about its best light. Poetry's a little thinner and more straight-laced with him gone.
