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jeffhall's review
4.0
This new(er) collection of poems from Rob Carney is more playful than The Book of Sharks, which was one of the best poetry volumes that I read in 2020. As in the prior volume, Carney's voice is clear and uncomplicated, as demonstrated by "Eight Things I Know About Galileo", one of my favorite works in Facts + Figures:
To be a sculptor made better sense
in a world that didn't want science,
in a world that liked things fixed
and held them fixed.
Except wars.
The occasional volcano.
The smaller eruptions of flame and smoke
when the need arouse to cure a heretic.
Another favorite poem in this collection, "Thirteen Moons" is a wonderful demonstration of Carney's ability to weave dreams, mythology, and the human experience of the natural world into beautiful lyrics that inspire the reader to reflection and meditation.
Facts + Figures is quite a different experience than The Book of Sharks, and lacks the unified narrative that made that volume so powerful. Nonetheless, Carney remains a deeply impressive poet, confident enough to avoid obscurity while crafting verses that manage to penetrate the white noise of our lives with strains of beauty that we are so in need of.
To be a sculptor made better sense
in a world that didn't want science,
in a world that liked things fixed
and held them fixed.
Except wars.
The occasional volcano.
The smaller eruptions of flame and smoke
when the need arouse to cure a heretic.
Another favorite poem in this collection, "Thirteen Moons" is a wonderful demonstration of Carney's ability to weave dreams, mythology, and the human experience of the natural world into beautiful lyrics that inspire the reader to reflection and meditation.
Facts + Figures is quite a different experience than The Book of Sharks, and lacks the unified narrative that made that volume so powerful. Nonetheless, Carney remains a deeply impressive poet, confident enough to avoid obscurity while crafting verses that manage to penetrate the white noise of our lives with strains of beauty that we are so in need of.
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