Poetry – Page 128 – Cannonball Read 17

The “obstinate love” of memory

The Mother House by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

June 2, 2020 by tiny_bookbot Leave a Comment

The first few days of April, I was supposed to be in Houston for the annual meeting of the American Conference for Irish Studies. This community of academics is one of my favorites, and this conference is something I’ve come to look forward to, not least because there are pretty much always four poetry roundtables, conference sessions in which a small panel takes the whole audience through a discussion of a recent book of Irish poetry. Handouts of select poems are provided for everyone, and […]

Somebody had to do it.

Byrne by Anthony Burgess

May 23, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

The opening line of this drawer novel in verse found among Anthony Burgess’s papers after his death is “Somebody had to do it.” and well, agree to disagree. The is short, a little over a hundred pages, and the story involves the long life of an Irish poet who finds himself among all sorts of sorts in the 20th century as he bandies about his world. It’s kind of a novel in complain, and while I am no poetry expert, it feels quite artificial. The […]

He came after Homer and before Gertrude Stein, a diffi-cult interval for a poet.

Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson

May 20, 2020 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

This a short verse novel that takes on a few forms (and like it’s subject could maybe be said to have many faces?). It’s an autobiography of a poet, it’s a novel about a mythical being, and it’s form of mythopoesis that brings that myth into the modern world. It’s not always doing all three at once, and at times jumps back and forth among those different tasks. We mostly are following Geryon, a three headed mythical creature who guards cattle in a far off […]

Do you know what a riddle-ku is?

Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons by Laura Purdie Salas

May 19, 2020 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Do you know what a Riddle-ku is? Learn all about them (and so much more) in this far out book of American haiku and riddles. Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons reads like a story and is all around A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! (add a few more !!! there). Laura Purdie Salas created poems that show the season it represents in a new way. We do not just see “leaves” for fall or “snow” for winter, but other creatures, ideas and feelings that we associate with […]

Do you like the mug of a pug or how the Dane reigns?

Bark in the Park! Poems for Dog Lovers by Avery Corman

May 15, 2020 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

I admit it, I am not really a dog person. My speed is more the pet rock kind of pet. However, if you love dogs, have a dog or ten, want a dog, can’t have a dog or want to read about dogs, this is the book for you. Also, if you like poetry that is rhyming, you should give this a once (or twice or thrice) over. Therefore, even if you are like me and not a “dog person” you can enjoy this gem […]

An autobiography in verse

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

May 11, 2020 by Malin Leave a Comment

4.5 stars Official book description: Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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