Last Chance for the Tarzan Holler

by Thylias Moss

A collection of poems that deal with various aspects of human emotions

Genres: Poetry

117 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Thylias Moss is a multiracial maker, an award-winning poet, recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" grant, and twice nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry.

Reviews

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry is cool, because it's a bunch of words that mean stuff without telling some dumb story about made up people or weighing you down with a lot of real-life facts you're going to forget right away. Read more poems.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Life-changing.

[Chris Moser · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolute masterpiece. Moss deserves recognition among the absolute greatest poets of the English language.

[Я. · Rating 3 out of 5]

In one of my favorite movies, a character chides the protagonist for writing a book-length poem. She tells the protagonist, "A poem's supposed to be a small, delicate kinda thing." That line has always stuck out to me. If that is your type of thinking, Thylias Moss must be anathema to you.

Moss tends to write poems that are big, impossibly literate, confrontational, and often ugly. I actually shudder at her usage of the scatological. Someone described her to me as "she really makes you think." Imagine an even more fiery Anne Carson, another poet who is frequently lauded as a genius.

Moss makes me think, but often her fire seems apropos of a world I cannot not know. Her poems, despite her high-wire tricks, often come off as intellectualized emotion. Like a shield, keeping insight a few steps removed. It took me a very long time to absorb this volume. I would say it stubbornly resisted me.

Standouts include "Crystals," "Ant Farm," "Beauty, The Beast: Those Two," and "Accessible Heaven." "Crystals" was the poem that was given to me several years ago as an introduction to Moss. "Ant Farm" was my favorite in this volume. "Accessible Heaven" was perhaps the softest poem I have read by her. "Beauty, The Beast: Those Two" is a small, lyrical wonder.

I have two more books by Moss in my possession. I don't know if I will have as much trouble with those two, but I sit in dread and awe at the idea of them, waiting on my bookshelf.

[rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

if only there were more thylias mosses in the world.

[Donna · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I could have given this book a half star, I would have. It simply was not my cup-of-tea. My personal poetic aesthetics disagree with virtually everything in this book. I don't generally like long-lined poems, long poems, inaccessible poems, or poems that require an encyclopedia or dictionary to read. Moss' book was torture to read. Crammed with facts, some poorly researched, many unnecessary, it was almost as if the author was attempting to "prove something" about how smart/knowledgeable she was despite not following a traditional education path. Her work cried out for an editor to tighten it. For the most part, I found it tedious, deliberately sensational, and often incomprehensible.

This is not to say, that there weren't moments of excellence i the book. Occasionally, she had a wonderful poem like "In the Pit of Crinoline Ruffles," "Accessible Heaven" or even "Crystals." For the most part however,I felt struggling through her pack-rat's nest of words and images simply wasn't worth my time. One of my poetic colleagues rated this books extremely high--despite agreeing with many of these same opinions--saying she is at least trying (and sometimes exceeding) to do something extraordinary and he prefers that to someone who writes continuously competently but who never tries for exceptional. Personally, I don't need all the failed attempts. I think if Moss is such a genius, she needs to wait until she has enough successful poems before putting together a collection.

My friend's comment that he "remembers" a number of her poems or images, whereas some other poets, who are better craftspersons, he can't recall a single poem. I could answer that perhaps his memory is not as good as others or that he only remembers Moss's work because its fresh in his mind. Or I could point out that remembering a poem is not necessarily (in my book at least) a criteria for its being good. If that were the case, The Lady from Nantucket limerick should be the best poem ever written.

If you want controversial and you have patience, Read this book. Otherwise, read Mary Karr, Doriane Laux, Yusef Komunyakaa, or even Russell Edson.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best poets writing in English.