mimireads320's review against another edition
1.0
Couldn't finish... Had high hopes.. But was disappointed
courtney_mcallister's review
4.0
I've been wanting to read this book since 1999, when my mother clipped "My Father Calls Me Every Sunday Morning" out of the Washington Post for me. I think I still have the clipping in one of my many folders. Finding my way back to Once I Gazed at You in Wonder after so many years is strangely fulfilling.
I was not expecting to feel so overwhelmed by Levi's meditations on death - specifically the loss of her mother. I admire the power and originality of pieces like "If We Could Speak of Death, What Would We Say?" I'm glad I didn't read these poems when I was 15, though. Time has made them suit me.
There are also some strange, quixotic poems about marriage, sexuality, and Baltimore. Really, what more could you ask for? This is 4 stars because I don't think the individual poems were ordered/arranged in a meticulous way. The connective tissue seems spotty in the later sections, which creates a harsh dissonance when compared to the fierce focus and cohesion of the first pieces (the ones that deal primarily with death).
I was not expecting to feel so overwhelmed by Levi's meditations on death - specifically the loss of her mother. I admire the power and originality of pieces like "If We Could Speak of Death, What Would We Say?" I'm glad I didn't read these poems when I was 15, though. Time has made them suit me.
There are also some strange, quixotic poems about marriage, sexuality, and Baltimore. Really, what more could you ask for? This is 4 stars because I don't think the individual poems were ordered/arranged in a meticulous way. The connective tissue seems spotty in the later sections, which creates a harsh dissonance when compared to the fierce focus and cohesion of the first pieces (the ones that deal primarily with death).
More...