thomasgoddard's review against another edition
4.0
A solid collection that follows a lot of the standard poetic themes: love, grief, change.
What is most present is its realness in the sense of its kinship to clarity and not shying away from allowing a little to go unsaid. Because that's perfectly reasonable for humans, that element of unspoken recognition. A familiarity that needs no translation.
To that end I was rather touched by quite a few poems.
Siren, Lapse and Fires were my top poems here and I read each many times.
Definitely a collection I'll return to.
Was a tiny bit disappointed at the length of the collection. Felt a little light.
What is most present is its realness in the sense of its kinship to clarity and not shying away from allowing a little to go unsaid. Because that's perfectly reasonable for humans, that element of unspoken recognition. A familiarity that needs no translation.
To that end I was rather touched by quite a few poems.
Siren, Lapse and Fires were my top poems here and I read each many times.
Definitely a collection I'll return to.
Was a tiny bit disappointed at the length of the collection. Felt a little light.
whogivesabook's review against another edition
4.0
A solid collection that follows a lot of the standard poetic themes: love, grief, change.
What is most present is its realness in the sense of its kinship to clarity and not shying away from allowing a little to go unsaid. Because that's perfectly reasonable for humans, that element of unspoken recognition. A familiarity that needs no translation.
To that end I was rather touched by quite a few poems.
Siren, Lapse and Fires were my top poems here and I read each many times.
Definitely a collection I'll return to.
Was a tiny bit disappointed at the length of the collection. Felt a little light.
What is most present is its realness in the sense of its kinship to clarity and not shying away from allowing a little to go unsaid. Because that's perfectly reasonable for humans, that element of unspoken recognition. A familiarity that needs no translation.
To that end I was rather touched by quite a few poems.
Siren, Lapse and Fires were my top poems here and I read each many times.
Definitely a collection I'll return to.
Was a tiny bit disappointed at the length of the collection. Felt a little light.
lokster71's review against another edition
5.0
"Something I knew was only beginning.
Something, I knew, was at an end."
I have read a lot of poetry in the last couple of years. This is up amongst the best of them. This collection takes its title from Erato, the Muse of Lyric poetry. It beautifully covers and questions the world we live in. It uses language with subtlety and strength to talk about big subjects: nature, love, death, grief, fear, terrorism, remembering and forgetting.
"And now when I walk with my son and daughter down the street
it is with you and their lost father and the future and the notes of the
piano not played and the length of stride as the sun creates shadow
and the small pieces of LEGO in my pocket like the fragments of a dead
language just translated."
I liked pretty much every poem here but I had a particular soft spot for Mon Amour, Lyrebird, Siren, Walk, Lapse, I.M., Erasure, Heartbreak, and Nightjar.
I've said in pretty much every poetry review I've put up on Goodreads that I lack the technical knowledge to analyse the engineering of these poems, but I know when something moves me. And these poems moved me to both thought and emotion. What more do you want from poetry?
"...Under the line in caps lock I write: A poem
teaches us what we don't yet know."
Something, I knew, was at an end."
I have read a lot of poetry in the last couple of years. This is up amongst the best of them. This collection takes its title from Erato, the Muse of Lyric poetry. It beautifully covers and questions the world we live in. It uses language with subtlety and strength to talk about big subjects: nature, love, death, grief, fear, terrorism, remembering and forgetting.
"And now when I walk with my son and daughter down the street
it is with you and their lost father and the future and the notes of the
piano not played and the length of stride as the sun creates shadow
and the small pieces of LEGO in my pocket like the fragments of a dead
language just translated."
I liked pretty much every poem here but I had a particular soft spot for Mon Amour, Lyrebird, Siren, Walk, Lapse, I.M., Erasure, Heartbreak, and Nightjar.
I've said in pretty much every poetry review I've put up on Goodreads that I lack the technical knowledge to analyse the engineering of these poems, but I know when something moves me. And these poems moved me to both thought and emotion. What more do you want from poetry?
"...Under the line in caps lock I write: A poem
teaches us what we don't yet know."
lokster71's review
5.0
"Something I knew was only beginning.
Something, I knew, was at an end."
I have read a lot of poetry in the last couple of years. This is up amongst the best of them. This collection takes its title from Erato, the Muse of Lyric poetry. It beautifully covers and questions the world we live in. It uses language with subtlety and strength to talk about big subjects: nature, love, death, grief, fear, terrorism, remembering and forgetting.
"And now when I walk with my son and daughter down the street
it is with you and their lost father and the future and the notes of the
piano not played and the length of stride as the sun creates shadow
and the small pieces of LEGO in my pocket like the fragments of a dead
language just translated."
I liked pretty much every poem here but I had a particular soft spot for Mon Amour, Lyrebird, Siren, Walk, Lapse, I.M., Erasure, Heartbreak, and Nightjar.
I've said in pretty much every poetry review I've put up on Goodreads that I lack the technical knowledge to analyse the engineering of these poems, but I know when something moves me. And these poems moved me to both thought and emotion. What more do you want from poetry?
"...Under the line in caps lock I write: A poem
teaches us what we don't yet know."
Something, I knew, was at an end."
I have read a lot of poetry in the last couple of years. This is up amongst the best of them. This collection takes its title from Erato, the Muse of Lyric poetry. It beautifully covers and questions the world we live in. It uses language with subtlety and strength to talk about big subjects: nature, love, death, grief, fear, terrorism, remembering and forgetting.
"And now when I walk with my son and daughter down the street
it is with you and their lost father and the future and the notes of the
piano not played and the length of stride as the sun creates shadow
and the small pieces of LEGO in my pocket like the fragments of a dead
language just translated."
I liked pretty much every poem here but I had a particular soft spot for Mon Amour, Lyrebird, Siren, Walk, Lapse, I.M., Erasure, Heartbreak, and Nightjar.
I've said in pretty much every poetry review I've put up on Goodreads that I lack the technical knowledge to analyse the engineering of these poems, but I know when something moves me. And these poems moved me to both thought and emotion. What more do you want from poetry?
"...Under the line in caps lock I write: A poem
teaches us what we don't yet know."
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