hereistheend's review against another edition
4.0
ruefle has this way of writing Poetry that feels a capital p, feels somehow traditionally and intelligent... without any of the stuffiness or pretentiousness of poets too smart for mortals. her poems are homey and visual and thoughtful and careful, and i wish i could take ruefle’s class. i guess i just thank god that she has a book of lectures 😊
monalyisha's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Many of the poems felt personal to the point of exclusion; I struggled to connect with them. Still, there were some gems. If ever I have a Writer’s Corner, the following will be on the wall:
“All things written feel a little terrified at first,
...
but making anything you have explored time,
and exploring time you have created the world,
even if it is only a little cairn of broken bricks
at the end of the rainbow.”
For these words, I’m grateful.
maddykpdx's review against another edition
4.0
Poems to return to:
"Middle School" (a most excellent middle school poem)
"College"
"Middle School" (a most excellent middle school poem)
"College"
interrobang's review against another edition
5.0
can't stop thinking about "provenance". "I thought perhaps the animals / would all come back / together and on one day / but they never did". and then some. I love it.
tee's review against another edition
maybe this isn’t the best mary ruefle work to start with or it is wise beyond my comprehension, because i just couldn’t love this book even though i really wanted to. it took me a couple months to get through for there weren't a lot of poems i liked, and the ones that i did didn’t stick with me. still going to read her other books though!
from ‘argot,’ “the moon passes her twentieth night.
month after month, she dies so young.
what are the trout thinking?
at dawn on the thirteenth
i am lost in the great expanse
of tiny thoughts.
when i say trout i mean you”
from ‘argot,’ “the moon passes her twentieth night.
month after month, she dies so young.
what are the trout thinking?
at dawn on the thirteenth
i am lost in the great expanse
of tiny thoughts.
when i say trout i mean you”
valerieloveland's review against another edition
4.0
I always like Mary Ruefle's poetry. She is consistently good, and I've enjoyed every book of poetry of hers that I've read. I didn't like this one as much as the others that I read, but it was still good.
The linebreaks felt really choppy this time. I looked at some of the poems I liked in her other books, and they aren't a lot shorter than these but the lines seem broken in better places. Ruefle has poems that lines end with words like "the" or "of." I also think the poems overall were a little less inventive. Not terrible, but her other poems were fantastic so there is a really high established standard.
I liked her shorter poems better than her longer poems in this book.
My favorite poems in this book:
Argot
Jumping Ahead
Broken Spoke
Goodnight Irene (This is the last poem example and is two pages long)
The linebreaks felt really choppy this time. I looked at some of the poems I liked in her other books, and they aren't a lot shorter than these but the lines seem broken in better places. Ruefle has poems that lines end with words like "the" or "of." I also think the poems overall were a little less inventive. Not terrible, but her other poems were fantastic so there is a really high established standard.
I liked her shorter poems better than her longer poems in this book.
My favorite poems in this book:
Argot
Jumping Ahead
Broken Spoke
Goodnight Irene (This is the last poem example and is two pages long)
tymelgren's review against another edition
3.0
I loved many of these lines and sequences of lines, but as complete poems I couldn't care about very many. The one where I left my leaf ends with:
I hated childhood
I hate adulthood
And I love being alive
I hated childhood
I hate adulthood
And I love being alive