The poets know the truth.
347262
What makes The Answer to Everything such an interesting novel is that you never know (truly) in this text who is sincere in what they say and who is an opportunist. That ambiguity in character motives is one of the pleasures of the book.
This dramedy novel has some funny moments and more than a few drool lines, but it is hinged in darkness and there are more than a few broken souls who populate its pages. Plot overview; someone stumbles upon a guru of sorts and almost unintended a cult springs up. This text explores in a surface manner what makes people grasp to a belief system. One section of the text that is especially interesting to read are emails sent to the Answer Institute (the cult the book focuses around) from the folks who find it online and write in. Their stories are very human, and surprisingly touching.
As the book progresses, the three points of view we get diverge more and more and their versions/interpretations of the same events are a big part of the fun of this text. Not as fun is the cheap meta theatrical device the author uses to frame this story. It does not detract from the novel, but it also adds nothing to it.
The Answer to Everything is a quick and at times funny read. I would not call it profound, but it is certainly a worthwhile read. Im glad I stumbled upon it.
1192316
Anya Silver is one of the finest poets writing in America today. Her poems are exquisite and she is able to strike that delicate balance between being a poet's poet and a people's poet.  These poems are particularly moving, filled with the thirst for life, the inevitability of death, and the hope of the eternal. I recommend them highly. Kudos to LSU Press for publishing some of today's best poetry and to Michelle Neustrom for a beautiful cover design.
1027091
This is a stunning collection of poems, written by poets who served during World War One.  Many of the poets in the volume died in combat during the war, and very little remains in print from them.  This book gives the reader a great opportunity to see their work.  The material is not all of one mood -- there is reflective verse recalling the beauty of home, patriotic verse designed to either encourage others to join the fight or explain the poet's own desire to do his duty; and there is work intending to depict with brutal ho0nesty the actual horrors of war.  This volume is public domain, meaning all the poems in it were written and published before 1923, but the material is not old -- it has relevance to all of us, to all humanity at any age and time.  One hundred years ago this year the nations of Europe and subsequently much of the world went to war.  Millions died.  And yet we repeated the horrors just 25 years later.  Some call the ensuring hundred years -- to today -- the Century of War.  Reading these poets may give the reader a warm "face" to a cold statistic, and the experience will be rewardin g.
1291779
Presley Coxs chapbook, Alcoholprism: The Awful Trap of Addiction and How the Trap Might Be Sprung, offers readers an insiders view of the world of addiction. The poems showcase a variety of issues that those mired in addition, those recognizing the need to make a life change, and those who are on the road to recovery will recognize, even identify with.

The poems are short, but the images contained in them are evocative, soliciting responses even from readers who have never fought addiction. In Stop Trying to Hide, for example, the poet portrays an issue that many could identify with: Stop trying to hide / The screaming inside. / You try to drown out the noise/ With cars, clothes and toys . . . .

Most of the poems incorporate a rhyme scheme, a ploy that can negatively affect the readability of a poem. But Cox manages to keep the language fresh enough or gritty enough to prevent the rhymes from becoming simplistic or saccharine. The standout poem for me is I Used to Use. With its short lines and repeated words, it has the cadence of a blues poemone that stays in the readers mind even after the book is put aside.

Gwen Sullivan
Asst. Professor, English
159722
Extremley well crafted poetry by a group of poets known for their individual publications and reputations who have come together to collectively protest any kind of war, aggression and suppression.  It is not an easy read or an enjoyable book to pick up and curl up with.  It is the kind of poetry which makes you sit up and listen, feel the pounding bombardments through the words. From the well designed artistic cover to the poems and visuals in between the covers, real impressive work.
3382291
Clever poems, clever music and clever arrangements.  The Deal Poets clearly enjoy what they're doing and breathe new life into words you've known for years. Enjoy!
1374828
Y. B. Taylor has included an enormous amount of intellectual common sense in this literary composition.  It is an excellent thought-provoking book of poetry.  One can sense the author's deep feeling in her writings.
1666675
If you ever believed that Romantic poets didn't think about the business of literature, this book will cure you of it -- as well as reading poetic collections with the same interest, focus, and rigor that we usually reserve for individual poems. Literary Criticism for anyone interested in British Romanticism, the culture of genius and fame, and the practical issues that stand behind writing for posterity. The chapters on Charlotte Smith, Robert Southey, and Mary Shelley are especially good.
4385409
As a reader and lover of poetry, I am particularly fond of anthologies. There's a thrill that comes with discovering a new poet, or seeing a favorite poet in a different context and setting. That's why when I got my hands on Persistent Voices - Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS, a wonderful collection edited by Philip Clark and David Groff, I was eager to spend some quality time with the likes of Tim Dlugos, Essex Hemphill, and Reginald Shepherd. I was also delighted to be introduced to poets who were unfamiliar to me, such as George Whitmore and David Craig Austin.

The poems in this anthology bring forth a myriad of emotion. Some capture the burn of physical pleasure. Some sing of the universal joys of love. Some represent the foreshadowing of their poets' deaths. Their common thread, sadly, is that these poems leave us wanting more. We want more from these poets, who left us too soon. We want to call them and discuss mood and meaning. We want to hug them and nod together in recognition. We want to pre-order their next book. We want to learn from them, to comfort them, to gain strength from their poetic fierceness.  We want them. And sometimes, proving the true power of poetry, we are them.

Persistent Voices is more than a catalogue of strong poetry by poets who were equally strong (in many ways). Persistent Voices reminds us of the importance of poetry, of its place in society and of how it creates a degree of immortality. It teaches us, again, of how, with pen and paper, the truly persistent voices of these men and woman (yes, there are female poets included here) continue to be heard, to change lives, and to touch souls.

Many thanks to the poets, to their families and estates, and to Philip and David for sharing and preserving these gems.

This book receives my highest recommendation.
2493773
Thornton Wilder says, in Our Town, something like this: there are some things "seen only by poets and saints."
Read this beautiful book of poems and I think you will know what Wilder means!  This is a book  both poetic and saintly, a book of vision. Pavel's crafted and gifted words  opens eyes and opens hearts. A good, good book.
2110226
Davidson and Fraser's central argument (that you can't have good poetry without a solid understanding of criticism--and vice versa) bolsters their fundamental belief in the creative rigor that being either a poet or a critic requires. Their nuts-and-bolts calisthenics strengthen the mechanisms of the craft through analyzing and emulating the poetic techniques of both legends and learners. Rather than being a stolid poetry-writing book, this text will appeal to anyone interested in establishing, developing, or honing his or her creative writing skills.
1008437
Mr. Page has been able to capture of the mood of America in his book Surly You Have Thought of This. Moreover, he writes words that may be hurtful to readers, I would not write many of his poems. Surprising, the author has not lost faith; he encourages Americans to fight for freedom in his poem "Democracy."  Moreover, as you read his poems, you think he's preaching to the choir.  In reality the poems  awakens the consciousness of readers by making them acknowledge to the themselves what they have been thinking.
2598596
On my shelf, a heavy bookend holds treasured volumes tight against intrusion. There, they reign, my poets: Goethe, Schiller, Grillparzer. I grew up with them. Carl Sandburg, too, amuses; while Maya Angelou accuses. I love Poetry. It sings to me and stirs my soul.

Today, I shifted the heavy marble, for Jim Bennett, Canadian Poet, to take up residence among my favorites.

After several re-readings, Bennetts fifth volume: Retirement Clock: Poems 5, was not an easy read, hitting home on so many fronts: Retiring from being somebody, wilting away like autumn leaves, ashamed of our cruel world. Among the pages, there are four inter-connected poems in particular that made me stop and grieve; powerful beyond the thirteen years of passing.

If the poet will allow me to quote from The Path Now Taken. A misguided fanatic justifies his unthinkable act before Allah: ...the path now chosen absolves your path behind. Not until the following Burning I am the flame, did the imminent threat quiver, then horrify in Executed cant get out. The last of these four poems, Speech to the Statue of Liberty I saw the flame of freedom fail... ends with the pledge we must prevail.

I did not check pentameter, nor rhyme, which are technically perfect. I simply felt what I read. Some words swept over me at first, like that unexpected breaker on an unknown shore. But as I came to anticipate the next wave, moved back not to be swallowed up, followed it out into the surf to be taunted, I glimpsed precious pebbles underneath, watched blue-footed boobies soar above. This is todays Poetry in all its glory, its depths, its bared feelings; haunting imagery of life passing...

Jim Bennetts preceding volumes are equally as powerful. I strongly recommend you spend some stirring hours in their company.
2513324
A Poverty of Words is an excellent collection of poems. These are not always easy poems, but it did take me long before I began to trust them, allow them to call me back for a second or third read. Pollack is a keen observer, a thinker in the best sense of the word. If I were to describe this collection as a time of day, I would say dusk--when the light fades and the eyes must readjust. Pollack's  takes us through darkened hallways, down moving walkways, through offices closed for the night, encouraging us to reflect upon the residue, the small leavings, that detritus hidden in the glare of sunlight. Strong political undertones run through these poems. The wary relationships between the powerful and powerless: "Doors...left half-open/for the same reason pictures/are tilted, in homes, by maids." Or in "View of the Water," a realtor showing property to wealthy clients who "looks down/at puddles beneath/the wall and scuttling/people the size of rats the size of men." Or in "The Kid," when the powerful and the meek find equality in the body's humiliation on the death bed. There's a Kafkaesque feel to this collection. No one wakes up a cockroach, but Pollack does guide us through a somewhat strange, off-kilter world that's always present but often missed in the daylight. Read these poems and then read them again. It's time worth spent.
4155073
Whatever the poems are in their original language, they are beautiful in this translation.
4249472
If you're going to ask questions, you better be ready to hear the truth.

Let this be a warning and a promise to readers: Dallas Hudgens asks questions and delivers truths in profound and subtle ways in this collection of brilliant stories. Read them one at a time, not all in a row, and let your brain savor the language, the layered complexities, and the laughter in the pain.

Many of these stories are about people trying to find a better version of themselves when there's more momentum moving against them than seems reasonable or fairand then discovering, suddenly, that they're on the other side, and that there can be peace within and after disaster. At the same time, the characters are not always self-aware enough to recognize the larger forces of change in their lives, or to recognize what part they play in effecting that change for themselvesbut because Dallas has done his work so well, we can see everything the characters cant.

When people describe writing as tackling what it means to be human, or as being about characters who are deeply human, this seems to mean that the makeup of our flaws and how we handle them, and how we handle the flaws of others impinging on our world, are what make us who we are. Though these stories are (as the book blurb teases) about people who are deeply flawed, they're also about people whose flaws make them impossibly real to us, and because of that, impossible not to love. A character might have moved *one inch* from their starting point by the story's end, but it was a hard-earned inchand sometimes an inch is all it takes.

The stories in this book make exceptional use of their brief lengths to paint beautifully detailed portraits. By the end of each story, you know the hell out of who these people are. The stories suss out the point in a person's life during which a crucial change will occur, and show, with insight and precision, how the character both causes and experiences that change. I cant pick a favorite. I love them all.

Okay fine, Zamboni. Or maybe The Scavengers Daughter. Or As Sounding Brass.

Or all of them.
2196748
There are some books of poetry that I will never finish for fear I will bleed their inspiration dry. Those books are horrors stitched inside beautiful truths. Those books are "Shake Loose My Skin" by Sonia Sanchez, "Leadbelly" by Tyehimba Jess and most recently "A Little Truth On Your Shirt" by Sonya Renee Taylor. "A Little Truth" is a delectable brew of honest confessions, jarring epiphanies, and startling indictments. This raw collection of poems is more than thought; it is travel, time, and journey. Taylor has proven herself again and again as a force to be reckoned with on stages the world over. This work is living proof that her words not only stand on the stage, but on the page in a mighty, mighty way.