Quick Yesses Regarding Various Recent Poetries
Poems by Elizabeth Bishop.
Is there already a Collected Poems of Bishop's? Sure there is. Is there also, even after that, a collection with pulls from her unpublished stuff? Indeed there's that, too. Meaning: why would anyone need to publish or buy more Bishop stuff? Answer: because Bishop's stuff is some of the best American poetry made in the last century (and this coming from someone who loathed the work, originally—hated the turgid pace, the seeming casualness), and because no matter when the last time you read "One Art" was, you need to read it again, and because you may, like me, not yet own a copy of "It is marvellous to wake up together…" which was originally included in Edgar Allen Poe…, but I hadn't seen it before now, and holy crap, that's what: holy, holy something or other, anyway.
The Captain Asks for a Show of Hands
by Nick Flynn
Sure, I'll admit it: I leaned back from The Ticking is the Bomb, because I have conflicting notions of memoirs, and I didn't want to read the dude's second memoir, but I'll 100% cop to loving Another Bullshit Night, and to being just crazy for the guy's poetry. And so when this came, I ate the thing breathless, more than glad. Flynn's essays of late haven't really done much for me, but somehow the poetry—which largely takes as subject the same stuff he's covering in nonfiction (torture, US policy, fear/terror, being responsible)—just sings, perfect-voiced.
Wolf Face by Matt Hart.
Speaking of perfect voices. Speaking of one of the first two books from H_NGM_N. Speaking of "This Amazing Confoundedness" and "And Then There's This" and "You Are Mist." Speaking of homophones. Speaking of a book which sneaks up weirdly: it's right there, Wolf Face, but doesn't feel predatory in the direct and snarling way. Speaking of indirect. Speaking of finding a place to fit yourself into comfortable for an hour or maybe two. Speaking of having a book worth finding such space and time for.
Speech Acts and Panic by Laura McCullough
Yes: she had two books come out simultaneously, and they came out in that order, and that's worth noting simply because Speech Acts fundamentally (and weirdly) ends up informing the reader not just about reading McCullough's work but about how to read her work, what it means, what it's up against, in her, and how things come through. I want to note that I almost didn't include anything about these two here, because they deserve way more space than this. Maybe the best I can say is this: Speech Acts is as interesting and saucy a field guide to the making not just of poetry but meaning (which drags of course also questions of intent and association, there's a good deep fall in store for the reader) as I've seen ever, and Panic is as clear and unsentimentalized an account of a bad event in a book of poetry I've read. McCullough deserves way more than this measly mention, but it's a start: reward her with your time and readerly energy.
World Tree by David Wojahn
READ IT READ IT READ IT. I had no idea. I'm ashamed and embarrassed that I haven't fallen hard already for Wojahn. Read it, if nothing else, because Wojahn's doing rhythmic structural stuff in his poetry that makes a whole mess of other poets look like they're not even trying to answer any questions about beat, pulse, the ticking that blips beneath us all. It's a hell of a book (even if the big, interesting, words + pic section at the book's heart is, actually, the least resonant).
