Reviews

The Niagara River: Poems by Kay Ryan

irmamari's review

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challenging hopeful inspiring

2.75

bougainvillea's review

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2.0

more 2.5. 2 or 3 that are absolutely stunning. 2 that are good. majority meh.

asira's review

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lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

3.0

discocrow's review

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3.0

This was a pleasant collection of poetry written by a Poet Laureate. As I had said in the previous book I reviewed, a collection of Sappho's poetry, while I read a great deal of poetry growing up it has been a long time since I returned to those waters. Sappho's poetry spoke to me in a way I'd not been spoken to in some time - the meaning behind the poem fragments relatively easy to parse. [b: The Niagra River|130093|The Niagara River|Kay Ryan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439538857s/130093.jpg|125295] was a different beast. While it wasn't as oftentimes vague and muddied as [b: War of the Foxes|21532793|War of the Foxes|Richard Siken|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1426378241s/21532793.jpg|40861331] was, the poetry was still a bit less accessible to me than I had found Sappho's to be.

I liked a great deal of the poems that I read here. In particular I found "Pitcher" and "Chinese Foot Chart" particularly evocative. I liked the title poem a great deal and the abundance of nature imagery within. The poetry was all very well written, but it lacked for me some of the express bluntness of Sappho's work and the wild burning urgency of Richard Siken's. Nevertheless, this is certainly a good read and a worthy one.
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