Admittedly, it might be more appropriate to put “reviews” in quotations. I would like to think I move beyond enthusiasm in my responses to individual poems and books. I like to have something reasonably insightful to say about what I’m writing about here. Or at least reasonable enough to include these “reviews” on a web site. My book reviews vary between the “micro-REVIEW,” inspired by microreviews that had appeared for many years at Boston Review, and the “REVIEW,” which typically results when my consideration of a book extends past 600 words. Also, if you scroll to the bottom of the page you’ll find a series of shorter poem reviews.
Ultimately, the internet is a big place, filled with many opinions. And I have many opinions that I’d like to contribute to whatever conversation might but be possible among the opinions. I announce new book review work on Threads and Bluesky, if you’d like updates.
I am aware the book review is an unsettled genre for poetry. Meaning, there aren’t clear guidelines for what it should accomplish. Every five years someone seems to write an essay wishing for more “honest” reviews. And, in the course of that complaint, it’s revealed they just want someone to say something mean about a book the essay writer thinks is getting too much attention. Alas. Poetry deserves more quality attention. But mean reviews often feel misdirected to me. Or the audience they think will be listening isn’t listening. That audience is getting defensive about whatever mean things are being said.
I’m interested in writing honest reviews. And, I’ll admit, I’m honestly enthusiastic about many of the books I read. I’m also honest that I might not be the best reader for any given book. I’ve developed what I hope is a democratic taste. Something orbiting around a healthy experimental lyric and however it can be spliced to narrative or docupoetics or identity poetics or maximalist poetic statement. Like every interesting literary journal, I just want inventive new takes on language. When I find work like that, it’s irresistible, and I feel myself swept into the poet’s voice. My reviewing is often an effort to translate that voice into a discernible take on subject or method or person. In situations where me and the book don’t mix, I endeavor to understand why I’m not the best reader for the book. It happens. And, as I’ve learned from students, and from anyone I’ve edited a magazine with, hearing why someone isn’t drawn to work can help me learn how large a world poetry is.
I’ve fashioned a reading life that actively pursues poetry I hope to be overwhelmed by. Which means I read many poems. Some I love. Some I don’t like. Some I mostly love. For years, I’ve used a database to track all these thoughts. Because there’s something exciting about a poetry life that reaches beyond my working memory. A database of poems is like planting seeds in a digital garden. Or it’s like living in quicksand. A poem I love from an anthology surfaces a poet I’d read in a journal a couple years before. And I’m drowning with how numerous the poetry world is. I read, then, with abandon, knowing poems I feel an electric connection to will connect to data that’s already cognizant of the poems I already love.
An important note, I invest time in reading individual poems, because it’s what leads my book reading. Or, put another way, my book reading benefits from the hard work literary journal editors put into their selection process. I’ve served as a poetry editor at various times in my life, and I’m familiar with the discussions shaping a journal’s table of contents. I am forever grateful for that work. This site is as much about giving attention to the books and poems I read as it is celebrating how many times I get to read spectacular poems, because people spend their time sorting through submissions.
On the right is a collection of the most recent poems I’ve been considering. The black boom box indicates a poem I’m excited about. The pink boom box icon means I’ve written a Notecard elaborating further thoughts on that poem. If you click on the card it will provide access.