alagoa's review
4.0
It's fascinating the way people talk to themselves. I don't know if every journal reads like this (haven't read many), but it's like a code. At first you wonder what some things mean and try to piece it together with the context. As you read along, you start to understand it better and better, and by the end you feel like you truly know how that person thinks, even though they can still catch you off guard and surprise you.
Joanne Kyger had a complex, beautiful code. So hard to crack that even at the end you wonder about what she was actually talking about in some of those thoughts she wrote. But I think that if you truly understand Kyger, it doesn't make sense to try to piece together all of it. With such vivid, natural and organic turns of phrase, the feeling gets through in a much more powerful way.
Feeling it will always be more powerful than understanding it. That's true for poetry and people aren't much different.
Joanne Kyger had a complex, beautiful code. So hard to crack that even at the end you wonder about what she was actually talking about in some of those thoughts she wrote. But I think that if you truly understand Kyger, it doesn't make sense to try to piece together all of it. With such vivid, natural and organic turns of phrase, the feeling gets through in a much more powerful way.
Feeling it will always be more powerful than understanding it. That's true for poetry and people aren't much different.
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