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Blackbird Bye Bye
Fine in a fine dust jacket (as new.) Hardcover first edition - New Random House,, (1989.). Hardcover first edition -. Fine in a fine dust jacket (as new.). First printing. The author's first book, winner of The Academy of American Poets' 1988 Walt Whitman Award (the judge was Amy Clampitt). Complimentary sheet laid in. 66 pp.
- GenresPoetry
66 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
April Bernard
22 books13 followersApril Bernard is the author of three poetry collections and a novel. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the Boston Review, the New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. She lives in Bennington, Vermont.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 8, 2007
I do not remember at all how I came to pick this one up--I think it may have been a random search that led me to it. At any rate, this is a very angry female poet. I mean really, really angry. You can feel her problems with life spilling out over the page and into your brain as you read, affecting your mind. I actually felt agitated after reading out of this book.
If you like that type of writing, you'll enjoy these poems. While not all of the poems are like that, even the first, a landscape poem, has an edge to it that warns you this author will not allow you to relax with a nice drink and perhaps a cigarette when you're reading.
Take this opening from "Good Advice":
"When the anthology arrives with your name in it,
try to avoid reading about the woman who is one with her
disease.
Because at length the silky shadow snakes across the floor,
and won't stop
at your legs, but rises like one of Daphne's last best friends
to push forth seasonally the false green and takes its suck
from you.
And wait for the insects to finish him before sounding the alarm."
Yikes. The second section of this collection is based off the Stations of the Cross, and is no less forgiving. Here is number 8, "You are My Sunshine":
"Systems flash their way to mental lips
in a parody of language; the absence
of curiosity or will.
Small projects to avoid action: lose give
pounds by Thanksgiving. buy a leather jacket.
Read the Apocrypha.
You must be joking.
The necrophiliac's wife sat in the porcelain tub
while the maid added ice cubes to the water.
Now she's in a coma, doing death;
action is when the body rolls from the sheets
and falls like tears do, from gravity."
Her coda to this section is, "He told them the parable of the mustard seed. I remain unpersuaded." I think that's a very telling remark. This is a writer, who, at least in her verse, shows no sense of hope or belief in anything better. The outlook is bleak. One of the blurbs on the back even says, "This is not a pleasant book." I could pull a few more quotes out from the text, but I think the above gives you a good idea of Bernard's style.
Ms. Bernard is very good at what she does. Her section titled, "The Score" uses several poetic monologues to tell a crime, in which of course there is not even a trace of goodness. I admire her technical brilliance, but unfortunately, for me, this is not the type of poetry that works as an entire book. This did not work for me. However, you may want to check this out, as it could work for you. (Library, 10/07)
Trebby's Take: Technically good, but not for me.
If you like that type of writing, you'll enjoy these poems. While not all of the poems are like that, even the first, a landscape poem, has an edge to it that warns you this author will not allow you to relax with a nice drink and perhaps a cigarette when you're reading.
Take this opening from "Good Advice":
"When the anthology arrives with your name in it,
try to avoid reading about the woman who is one with her
disease.
Because at length the silky shadow snakes across the floor,
and won't stop
at your legs, but rises like one of Daphne's last best friends
to push forth seasonally the false green and takes its suck
from you.
And wait for the insects to finish him before sounding the alarm."
Yikes. The second section of this collection is based off the Stations of the Cross, and is no less forgiving. Here is number 8, "You are My Sunshine":
"Systems flash their way to mental lips
in a parody of language; the absence
of curiosity or will.
Small projects to avoid action: lose give
pounds by Thanksgiving. buy a leather jacket.
Read the Apocrypha.
You must be joking.
The necrophiliac's wife sat in the porcelain tub
while the maid added ice cubes to the water.
Now she's in a coma, doing death;
action is when the body rolls from the sheets
and falls like tears do, from gravity."
Her coda to this section is, "He told them the parable of the mustard seed. I remain unpersuaded." I think that's a very telling remark. This is a writer, who, at least in her verse, shows no sense of hope or belief in anything better. The outlook is bleak. One of the blurbs on the back even says, "This is not a pleasant book." I could pull a few more quotes out from the text, but I think the above gives you a good idea of Bernard's style.
Ms. Bernard is very good at what she does. Her section titled, "The Score" uses several poetic monologues to tell a crime, in which of course there is not even a trace of goodness. I admire her technical brilliance, but unfortunately, for me, this is not the type of poetry that works as an entire book. This did not work for me. However, you may want to check this out, as it could work for you. (Library, 10/07)
Trebby's Take: Technically good, but not for me.
February 16, 2013
The greatest living American poet?!?
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews