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The Punishment Gift
6 poems of unrequited love.
- GenresPoetry
28 pages, Paperback
Published April 2, 2016
535 people want to read
About the author
Amber Tamblyn
16 books903 followersAmber Tamblyn is an author, actor, and director. She's been nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe, and Independent Spirit Award for her work in television and film, including House M.D. and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Most recently, she wrote and directed the feature film Paint It Black. She is the author of three books of poetry, including the critically acclaimed bestseller Dark Sparkler, and a novel, Any Man, as well as a contributing writer for the New York Times. She lives in New York.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 21, 2016
Okay, I don't want to be too hard on this. I think it's great that Amber Tamblyn is interested in poetry and is clearly doing her best to become a good poet. Apparently she also blogs about and reviews poetry for other outlets, so she definitely seems to take the form seriously. It's entirely possible that people who pick up her books because they were a fan of Joan of Arcadia or The Sisterhood of Traveling Pants might develop a lifelong passion for poetry, which would be a good thing. And certainly there are a few good lines here that any poet would not be ashamed to come up with.
But this is apparently Tamblyn's fourth (!) published collection, and I guess I thought she would have progressed a little further than this by now. Honestly, this mostly reads like the work of the best poet in an undergraduate writing seminar: It shows promise, but its place is in student poetry magazines or open mic nights, not traditionally published, widely distributed collections. The longest poem here, "This Living," employs the conceit of having each stanza begin with the word "It's"; e.g., "It's going to make you get under / the table / and drink there"; "It's going to be a lot, but never enough"; "It's going to ride like a horse's ghost," etc. This goes on for five pages of this twenty-page chapbook. It's an idea that can seem like a clever way in for a writer, but if not done exceedingly well can be mind-numbing for the reader. Another poem, describing her mood, repeats the word "black" over and over again, probably like you did in the diary you kept in high school.
The Punishment Gift is a six-poem exploration of unrequited love. While most of us have experienced unrequited love and know that it sucks, we also know that eventually it does fade and it's hard to recapture that feeling later on. In that sense, maybe it's good to have this documentation from right in the thick of things. In another sense, I think this theme may work better as emotion recollected in tranquility. Despite my own experiences in this area, I found most of these poems hard to relate to.
Still, there are worse things a person can do than try to write poetry, regardless of the outcome. I wouldn't tell anyone not to read Amber Tamblyn's efforts, but if you're someone who already reads a lot of poetry, just be aware you'll be grading this one on a curve.
I received this physically lovely edition from the publisher via a First Reads giveaway here on Goodreads.
But this is apparently Tamblyn's fourth (!) published collection, and I guess I thought she would have progressed a little further than this by now. Honestly, this mostly reads like the work of the best poet in an undergraduate writing seminar: It shows promise, but its place is in student poetry magazines or open mic nights, not traditionally published, widely distributed collections. The longest poem here, "This Living," employs the conceit of having each stanza begin with the word "It's"; e.g., "It's going to make you get under / the table / and drink there"; "It's going to be a lot, but never enough"; "It's going to ride like a horse's ghost," etc. This goes on for five pages of this twenty-page chapbook. It's an idea that can seem like a clever way in for a writer, but if not done exceedingly well can be mind-numbing for the reader. Another poem, describing her mood, repeats the word "black" over and over again, probably like you did in the diary you kept in high school.
The Punishment Gift is a six-poem exploration of unrequited love. While most of us have experienced unrequited love and know that it sucks, we also know that eventually it does fade and it's hard to recapture that feeling later on. In that sense, maybe it's good to have this documentation from right in the thick of things. In another sense, I think this theme may work better as emotion recollected in tranquility. Despite my own experiences in this area, I found most of these poems hard to relate to.
Still, there are worse things a person can do than try to write poetry, regardless of the outcome. I wouldn't tell anyone not to read Amber Tamblyn's efforts, but if you're someone who already reads a lot of poetry, just be aware you'll be grading this one on a curve.
I received this physically lovely edition from the publisher via a First Reads giveaway here on Goodreads.
September 1, 2016
Poems! I'm not much of a fan of poems. They seemed OK. I liked the Vow the best
August 17, 2016
A very beautiful writing.
THANK YOU!!
THANK YOU!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews