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bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
4.0
Describing the experience of reading really good poetry is difficult. I appreciate what Emily Dickinson said about reading poetry: "If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know it is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know it is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?"
Kyle Dargan writes that kind of poetry. The Listening was his first collection, but it doesn't read like a debut effort. At the time the book was published, he was still in the MFA program at Indiana University but he writes with the assurance of a man who is already a master of his craft. He uses sound and linguistic gymnastics to weave his verses--mixing jazz and hip-hop to create his own lyric voice. This is the real deal and the best news is that he has two more collections of poetry out there waiting to be read.
I always feel inadequate when I get ready to review a book of poetry. I feel like the philistine in the art gallery: I don't know a lot about art, but I know what I like. And I like what Dargan does with these poems. A lot.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks!
Kyle Dargan writes that kind of poetry. The Listening was his first collection, but it doesn't read like a debut effort. At the time the book was published, he was still in the MFA program at Indiana University but he writes with the assurance of a man who is already a master of his craft. He uses sound and linguistic gymnastics to weave his verses--mixing jazz and hip-hop to create his own lyric voice. This is the real deal and the best news is that he has two more collections of poetry out there waiting to be read.
I always feel inadequate when I get ready to review a book of poetry. I feel like the philistine in the art gallery: I don't know a lot about art, but I know what I like. And I like what Dargan does with these poems. A lot.
This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks!
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