lisette7's review
3.0
In the words of Di Prima herself:
“There is a woman whose poems are bread & meat
hyacinth nightmare crepe paper
I close a window, she is not reflected in it
but I see her silhouette against the glass
she is crisp as ice, is soft
as russian vowels”
Loba starts abruptly and crashes into hurdles of words until the metalanguage learns to slow down into a lumber. That lumber is limping, then shuffling, then strong, then graceful — in such a way that I think that this will stay with me for a while.
“There is a woman whose poems are bread & meat
hyacinth nightmare crepe paper
I close a window, she is not reflected in it
but I see her silhouette against the glass
she is crisp as ice, is soft
as russian vowels”
Loba starts abruptly and crashes into hurdles of words until the metalanguage learns to slow down into a lumber. That lumber is limping, then shuffling, then strong, then graceful — in such a way that I think that this will stay with me for a while.
stierwood's review
challenging
inspiring
4.5
First off I have beef with this book’s back cover for calling it “the female counterpart to Ginsberg’s Howl.” Because how are you gonna do that on a book about female liberation like the only thing similar to howl here was that it was the same literary movement… come on… i thought we were over these comparisons, especially because this book isn’t comparable with anything a man could write.
I’m of the opinion that, like science fiction, beat poetry is more interesting when it is written by women.
i really enjoyed this. One for the crunchy girls, for the gurls like me who are fascinated with the idea of muses and what history can teach us. I loved how unique it was! It was more cohesive than a normal poetry collection, yet it wasn’t quite an epic because there was no beginning-middle-end in the traditional sense. But the recurring motifs and archetypes made it mysterious, like, where’s she gonna go with this… my one complaint is the one i make about everything beatnik which is that it can get irritating with all of the “i am the wolf goddess i hunt but i am hunted i stalk my pray i howl at the moon” so if thats not ur vibe this isn’t ur book
I’m of the opinion that, like science fiction, beat poetry is more interesting when it is written by women.
i really enjoyed this. One for the crunchy girls, for the gurls like me who are fascinated with the idea of muses and what history can teach us. I loved how unique it was! It was more cohesive than a normal poetry collection, yet it wasn’t quite an epic because there was no beginning-middle-end in the traditional sense. But the recurring motifs and archetypes made it mysterious, like, where’s she gonna go with this… my one complaint is the one i make about everything beatnik which is that it can get irritating with all of the “i am the wolf goddess i hunt but i am hunted i stalk my pray i howl at the moon” so if thats not ur vibe this isn’t ur book
psychosis333's review
5.0
Maybe I didn't know who I was until I read Loba. This will be carried around in my heart forever. I deeply want to share Loba with every woman in my life.
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