Author Archives: readingroom

a goldfinch instant

I usually read poetry books in pieces, at whim, leafing through the pages to scan whatever suits my mood of the moment. However, having glanced at the first few pages of “A Goldfinch Instant” by Paul Friedrich, I turned page … Continue reading

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child support

Robb Jackson’s latest book is a collection of occasional poems.  Each poem was written for his four children on their birthdays.  As the title of the collection suggests, these poems begin after the end of the marriage from which the … Continue reading

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horse and rider

Every poem is a performance, every performance an experiment. (Note to those who put a wall in poetry between page and stage: the world’s a stage, the page included.) The play on these pages explodes sometimes with music, bursts always … Continue reading

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myth, memory, and massacre

Paul Carlson and Tom Crum conclude Myth, Memory, and Massacre with the observation that “…in the larger story of Anglo-Indian conflict in Texas the so-called Battle of Pease River was not particularly significant. Indeed, its importance, such as it is, … Continue reading

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fifty poems

fifty glimpses sound as well as sight. listen to the blue of seven magpies, seven magpies, blue with age last night’s rain in daffodils bent, enclosed by gold-ringed eye fragments, gathered when they caught the ear of a poet’s eye … Continue reading

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delicate access

The author’s note with which Madeleine Marie Slavick introduces her 2004 collection delicate access is, more than most such notes, a taste of things to come. “A notice came from the post office,” she begins, “to please collect an oversize … Continue reading

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everybody has a pet

live inside out for sou vai keng, after reading everybody has a pet 1 still clouds stir every thinking thing thinking wind thinking nothing the heart of the matter the heart of every thinking thing pay no attention to that … Continue reading

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faith run

Faith Run begins with “a poem of one hundred tongues” that “realigns the saxophone / until two hundred eardrums respond, // the music building into a text that wants to spill / the wine out of the conches” (3). From … Continue reading

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china suite and other poems

Gillian Bickley is at her best when she lets the everyday surprises of multicultural, multilingual Hong Kong speak for themselves — as in the “prophet’s message” on a lamp-post “where usually the police affix notices / seeking witnesses of fatal … Continue reading

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contrapuntal

Contrapuntal is the work of a sophisticated, mature poet. Carol Hamilton, Poet Laureate of Oklahoma, 1995-1997, brings her years of lyrical experience and her keen eye for cultural history to the story of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Even those … Continue reading

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