seebrandyread's review
4.0
I think I prefer poetry collections that include a mix of styles and forms. Useless Landscapes or A Guide for Boys by D. A. Powell certainly shows this kind of range. Though most poems I think fall into the lyric category, the rhythms and voices change frequently. Even though some poems rely a little too heavily on clever wordplay for me personally, I can still appreciate the skill of the writer to manipulate language into so many unexpected shapes and meanings.
The collection is divided into two parts named for the two parts in the title. While neither section follows a hard rule, the first includes many poems that explore the idea of landscapes. These can be physical landscapes of place, especially ways that land is acted on by people like farming or the building of malls and neighborhoods. They also outline the landscape of the body, its strengths and weaknesses in a way that reminds me of Walt Whitman. The narrator looks at landscapes as the state of something like a political or sexual landscape. The poems themselves are given unique shapes that mimic the diverse topography of a map.
The poems in the second half of the book are more concerned with memory and the narrator looking back at his younger self or reflecting on the changes he's undergone as he's aged. He revisits past relationships and partners as well as his relationship with his own sexuality. Powell's poems are rife with sexual imagery and innuendo. He may be as good at the sexual double entendre as Shakespeare or Whitman.
The voice of the collection is often self-deprecating and tongue-in-cheek which sometimes works for me and sometimes doesn't. Of course this is a matter of taste. It still adds to the rich texture of the collection as a whole because there are plenty of solemn poems to balance out the tone. The overall effect is that of someone who is mature enough for self reflection and critique but young at heart enough to still find humor in the serious or even the painful.
The collection is divided into two parts named for the two parts in the title. While neither section follows a hard rule, the first includes many poems that explore the idea of landscapes. These can be physical landscapes of place, especially ways that land is acted on by people like farming or the building of malls and neighborhoods. They also outline the landscape of the body, its strengths and weaknesses in a way that reminds me of Walt Whitman. The narrator looks at landscapes as the state of something like a political or sexual landscape. The poems themselves are given unique shapes that mimic the diverse topography of a map.
The poems in the second half of the book are more concerned with memory and the narrator looking back at his younger self or reflecting on the changes he's undergone as he's aged. He revisits past relationships and partners as well as his relationship with his own sexuality. Powell's poems are rife with sexual imagery and innuendo. He may be as good at the sexual double entendre as Shakespeare or Whitman.
The voice of the collection is often self-deprecating and tongue-in-cheek which sometimes works for me and sometimes doesn't. Of course this is a matter of taste. It still adds to the rich texture of the collection as a whole because there are plenty of solemn poems to balance out the tone. The overall effect is that of someone who is mature enough for self reflection and critique but young at heart enough to still find humor in the serious or even the painful.
nick_jenkins's review
5.0
There is a graceful languor to many of these poems which makes them a tremendous pleasure to read. Powell's characteristic wordplay and wit are in full flower, and he solidifies a growing pastoral strain from Chronic, his last volume, which has added a gorgeous new dimension to his already quite rounded repertoire.
debs71d4e's review
3.0
It is rare that I find a collection of poetry which I love in its entirety. The best I can usually hope for is three or four individual poems--and a few more lines or stanzas--that move me. These I copy into a word document for further reflection and examination. I think my favorite poem from this particular collection is "Tarnished Angel," although there were a number of single lines which struck me still.
luiscorrea's review
4.0
Not my favorite of his. Depends a little too much on the double entendre, which had me giggling when I saw him read, but maybe I'm just in a bit of a funk (and no, not in Funkytown). Some transcendently brilliant poems in here though, especially the two title poems!
More...