October 11

Harlot by Jill Alexander Essbaum

Hot damn. Okay, I still wasn't thrilled with the rhyming. But otherwise, this is a cascade of alternating wit and power and I love it.

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Amazon Parable by Jeffrey Thomson

I quite liked this, with its handful of to-die-for lines. But it's frustrating at the same time because it could be spectacular and isn't. It's good. It pleases me. I read it yesterday and went to the fair instead of reviewing it, so today I write a review like a penitent.

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Horse Madness by David Baker

Some wonderfully strong images held down by ruminations on Vergil. I'm not that big a fan of first-degree Vergiling, let alone second-degree Vergilation.

Is poetry reviewing worth the time?

I asked over on my blog and have posed a challenge to review some poetry. So far, a few people have joined in. Please join the conversation. I want to know.

October 9

Post— by Jill Alexander Essbaum

I love rhymes in poems, both subtle and overt. But generally in free verse, rhyme seems self-conscious, as if the poet wants to be able to distance herself from the idea of rhyme while using the chime of rhyme. I liked quite a bit about this poem, but the rhymes struck my ear as very contrived and clunky, not extravagant, elegant, or playful--all potential attributes of good rhyming.

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Spittoono Lily by Thorpe Moeckel

No one could accuse Moeckel of treading too-well-worn ground here. There are a few turns of phrase that I appreciate, but. Well. I've been saying that a lot lately, respecting a few lines out of a poem but not really appreciating the whole. That isn't how I want to be.

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Prayer by Joanie Mackowski

A pretty poem with some quite attractive images, but the sum of the parts doesn't resonate with me. For once, I think the poem could afford to be longer, could afford a plot instead of a précis, something to bind these images into something more significant than a list in a poem.

If you like the WEE reviews

Check out Greg Perry's g r a p e z. He did it first and he does it better.

October 5

Note to a Pine Ridge Girl Who Can No Longer Read by Adrian C Louis

That's an intriguing title, but I found myself drifting throughout the poem. Nothing really captured me, anchored me. A few striking moments.

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Why We Took the Coastal Evacuation Route by Eleanor Lerman

Though I like repetition, I found the incantory "we tooks" to be annoying. Still, I liked this poem, especially the strange, opaque ending and the matter-of-fact reportage.

October 4

Crows by Deborah Bogen

Oh, I do like that. I tend to resist poems with such short lines, but this one works for me, with its short quick ideas and repetition repetition repetition. So happy.

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Experience by Christine Scanlon

I think Scanlon is simply working with a completely different asthetic than mine. I like very strong images, and I like them organic. I'm not much of a philosophizer. Strike that. I'm not a philosophizer at all. So abstract poems rarely spark anything in my noggin.

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Eidolon by Elaine Terranova

This is a poem with some prettiness, but it felt empty to me. I felt unconnected and irrelevant as a reader. I had nothing to bring to the table.

October 3

The Italics are Mine! by Dara Wier

This poem comes out in such a rush it's a bit breathless by the end. The voice here is young and intense and definitely supported by the emphasis of italics, the passion of the exclamation point.

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A Wife Explains Why She Likes Country by Barbara Ras

The funny thing is, I'm from the country, and everything in this poem is another reason why I don't like the country. I hate big hair and double-wides and that old-time religion. Yet, I love the poem. Who'da thunk?

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As far from the moon by Christine Scanlon

I can't claim to understand this odd little poem. My first read was a shruggy one, but when I came back to it to get my link ready, I reread and found something tickling at the back of my brain, something that made me say, "Hey, that's different than I thought I remembered." Can I be changed in the span of a few minutes? What will I think tomorrow?

October 2

Deposition by Peg Boyers

When I got to

The sword
that I have always known would pierce my heart

I pretty much gave up. Poems have a finite opportunity to grab me, which I sometimes power through because of this project. But I just lacked the will.

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That Hiccup was Optimism by Christine Scanlon

I'm not sold on this poem. Disappointing because I think the title is divine. I'm too in love with images to embrace this.

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This Is How It Is by Neil Shepard

If the last 8 lines were hacked off of this, I think I'd love it. It's hard to tell, since they lurk there despite my attempts to ignore them. I do wonder why people (including my husband) like the horrible, awful, clingy smell of lilacs. I shall put it down to insanity.