Review by Booklist Review
Dillard's earlier volume of poetry, Tickets for a Prayer Wheel (1974), contained the usual sort of poetry: poems written by the author. This volume is something altogether different. Dillard "didn't write a word of it." Found poems? Well, yes, except it's not that simple. Other found poetry consists of intact texts offered out of context. What Dillard has done is construct poems out of "bits of broken text" ; that is, she's lifted sentences and used them to create original poems on her own themes. So these are language collages, meticulous and surprisingly effective. Dillard found gems embedded in such unlikely and obscure sources as a boys' project manual, nineteenth-century scientific texts, and memoirs, and she has turned them into poems of wonderful resonance, some very moving, others quite funny. This rather arch endeavor, literary recycling if you will (and so postmodern), demonstrates just how much of poetry's power is in its reductiveness and juxtaposition. By liberating these lines--some so innocent and enthused, others, like the ones Dillard so delicately culled from letters by Vincent van Gogh, so beautifully poignant--Dillard has given them room to breathe and a second chance to make their rich presence felt. --Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Found poems are to their poet what no-fault insurance is to beneficiaries: payoffs waiting to happen where everyone wins and no one is blamed. Dillard culls about 40 such happy accidents from sources as diverse as a The American Boys Handy Book (1882) and the letters of Van Gogh. Taking the texts nearly verbatim but toying with theme and line breaks, the poet aims for a lucky, loaded symbolism that catapults the reader into an epiphany never imagined by the original authors. If parts of this collection fall short of that ideal, there are plenty of chuckles and some beautiful turns of phrase. Poems of joy tend to fare better than the more somber efforts. It is hard to play serious with a style that relies on techniques more common in comedy, such as understatement (``Another legal situation/ Is death'') and double entendre (``Try dropping from different heights''). Regardless, these co-op verses are never less than intriguing. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Poetry from the ever-popular Dillard. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
