American Crawl (Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry) [Paperback]

Paul Allen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

I telephoned a poet-friend long distance just to read him some poems from this first book by Paul Allen, the winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry. Here is a voice so matter-of-fact in its strength and grittiness that the stark subjects in many of the poems are all the more stunning for their dauntless presentation. The poem "Letting the Rabbit Scream" has the mood of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, but with chilling rationale. "The Man with the Hardest Belly" depicts brutal reality in a paraplegic preacher's call to faith, a family's quotidian reaction. These poems make no pretense of manipulating the emotions they evoke.

Review

69
American Crawl
At The Lake House
Attack
Come Home
The Day Spike Eisland Went Home
Dear Friend
Even The Sparrow Has Found A Home
Finishing The Well
Grabbing
His Breakfast
Hypothesis Contrary To Fact
Judy
Lapses
Letting The Rabbit Scream
The Man With The Hardest Belly
My Daughter's House
Natural Causes
Note For In The Morning
One Up By Clayton
Pickup
Rope
A Self-admit
This Year
Youngblood Tells Beekman And Jimmy Jr. About Crow
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 73 pages
• Publisher: University of North Texas Press; 1st edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157441027X
• ISBN-13: 978-1574410273
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,607,872 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great collection of poems in a distinctive voice., April 2, 1998

By 

R. Cooper "Ron Cooper" (Ocala, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Crawl (Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry) (Paperback)

I've seen a few of Paul Allen's poems before, and have looked forward to a collection. Finally, this volume provides us the chance to experience the range of this poet's gifts. Allen is very much a story teller in the Southern narrative poetic tradition that produced Warren, Dickey, and Bottoms. This is not, of course, to pigeon-hole Allen as a type of poet, but only to point up the fact that narrative poetry is a difficult feat, especially when the poet so effortlessly works in concrete images of such stunning power. But perhaps the most captivating quality in Allen's writing is its deep religious character, not in the ordinary sense, but in the sense that poetry is really about our desperate attempts to save our benighted souls. Allen catches those moments when we are aware of just how lost we are and just how frail are our efforts to get home. But there is hope, and that lies in the poetic sense. Allen's narrative style make his poems easy to read, but imossible to forget.

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of my favorite books of poetry., September 11, 2006

By 

Q. Nadig - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Crawl (Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry) (Paperback)

This is a really great book of poems, an unknown masterpiece!

-quintin nadig

Chicago, IL

5.0 out of 5 stars An emotional, visceral, deeply human voice, June 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: American Crawl (Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry) (Paperback)

These are the sounds and images we need from poetry, and find too seldom -- finely wrought passages of beautiful yearning, with a flat naturalism that is compelling and achingly true. Accessible on multifarious levels, these poems show us life on the inside of man -- a haunting look at times, but affirming in its struggle to survive on its own terms. "American Crawl" is fine storytelling -- and finer art.