Local Knowledge: Poems

by B.H. Fairchild

An early collection by the winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Although many of the poems here unfold among the small towns, abandoned farms, and slate skies of the rural Midwest, their larger landscape is the sheer fact; geographical, psychological, metaphysical; of "absences like so many lighted windows as you walk through a strange city, wanting to fill them with imaginary lives and words and stories."

Genres: Poetry

106 pages, Paperback

First published November 14, 2005

About the author

B. H. Fairchild, the author of several acclaimed poetry collections, has been a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the William Carlos Williams Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He lives in Claremont, California.

Reviews

[Inverted · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairchild is a poet I can only admire from a distance, because his preoccupations are noteworthy but are very different from mine. His dedication to looking at a rural and blue-collar America, "land of revivals and lost farms" (Speaking the Names), and his earnest storytelling, driven by a curiosity towards the neglected, the humble — although impressive traits, didn't resonate with me. His nostalgia, scattered in this collection, requires a landscape and a life I would never access.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Local Knowledge. I appreciate the work that went into creating this collection and can see why it won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry. I think the pacing of the collection works very well, and I like the structure to it. The quote from Robert Creeley on the first page, before any of the poems, really does sum up what the collection is going to be about. Also, I think when Fairchild uses quotes from other people before starting a poem, he incorporates them seamlessly, and these quotes are the perfect way to begin the poems (specifically in “Local Knowledge” and “Work”).

I think my favorite poem out of the whole collection is “The Last Days.” I love the line “and the pane of glass that comes between us seems as distant, as final, as the stars.” While there are many strong and powerful lines and stanzas throughout this collection, this is the one that stuck with me. It feels like it’s giving a description to a feeling that I have not known how to put into words until I read “The Last Days.” Another poem I enjoy is “The Machinist, Teaching His Daughter to Play the Piano.” I play several instruments, and I feel like I can really relate to this particular poem, especially about being a student of music.

One poem, or part of a poem, that I do not understand is in part IV of “Local Knowledge.” In the third stanza, “your” is used in place of “you’re” two times, and it seems to be a stylistic choice, but grammatically, I don’t understand it. Also, I have trouble seeing the connection between all these poems, but can understand what they mean individually.

[Dan Gobble · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked Fairchild's poems from their "local" perspective which relay some of his early childhood experiences and impressions of his dad's machine shop work; flashbacks to memories of scenes earlier in his life; sketches of people and their lives from the communities in which he grew up; all woven into meditations offering portals for pondering the deeper significance of our lives and how the events and particular circumstances of our lives, which may have seemed insignificant at the time, are still reverberating through the core of our being.

[Rebecca Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at the library, intrigued by the title and the book's cover artwork. I had never read any of Fairchild's work before and really enjoyed this volume of narrative poetry. A wonderful mix of grit and beauty.

[David Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A blue-collar bard who happens to live a few blocks away from me, speaking of local knowledge.

[Riegs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Best Poems:
"There is Constant Movement in My Head"
"Kansas" <3
"The Soliloquy of the Appliance Repair Man"

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry that reads like Mary Oliver with a switchblade. Love it.