Heroin: And Other Poems

by Charlie Smith

A collection of new poems by the author of Before and After explores themes of desire and lost love, using heroin as a metaphor for both in the title poem.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Hardcover

First published September 6, 2000

Reviews

[Kaiju Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heroin is Charlie Smith's fifth book of poetry and it falls somewhere in the middle in terms of quality. There is a maturity here not present in earlier works, but the forced quality of the previous Before and After shows itself every now and then. Fortunately for us, the majority of Heroin is not glaringly autobiographical. Unfortunately, the narrative style of Smith's poetry seems to be slipping away. Standouts in this volume include "Beds", "Flowers of Manhattan", and "As for Trees". Respectively, these poems list all the different types of beds, flowers, and trees. But there is a music to them and a poignancy that pulls us out of that everyday fog we live in and makes us think of these things we wander by everyday. There is a sense of the disregarded here and an opening of that door. Several of the other more narrative poems work, but not in the same lyrical way as the non. Perhaps Mr. Smith has discovered his true forte is the novel. While the narrative poem might now feel forced, the poetic novel stands high overhead the sub-literary glop of the grocery store novel. And in today's market of glop disguised as lit, it is refreshing to know that someone out there is at least trying. Heroin falls way short of genius, but offers up enough promise to keep one hoping.