WEE reviews May 1, 2006

Invitation by WD Snodgrass

Julie: The thing about reviewing anything is that you bring your own biases to the table. There's no denying it. So when I say that this poem was okay but that I wish it hadn't been published, I'm sitting here as someone who writes a lot in rhyme and who hates when rhyme is used to cutesy affect. Because then readers decide that's all rhyme is, and then, well, I don't want to be seen as cutesy. It's not fair, but at least I'll be up front about it and tell you where my biases are, when I'm aware of them. And I'm aware of this one.

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When Dylan Left Hibbing, Minnesota, August 1959 by John Hodgen

Julie: And then we get more rhyme only I'm having a tough time being charitable about this one at all. Yes, if all rhymed poems were like this, we'd all deserve to be smothered in our bed, bed, bed, bed. The rhymes are pasted on; I don't get the point. But hey, "Don't criticize what you can't understand," right? Bah.

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Map (Rimbaud) by Josh Hanson

Julie: I love short poems. I think they are hard to write, and refreshing to read. I love those rabbity punches. But this one is too short. I don't know enough about Rimbaud to tie anything to the title, and while I grasp the idea behind the inverted bowl, the close leaves me baffled. Still, I guess it's better to be baffled in five lines than fifty.