Customer Reviews

American Girl (New Issues Poetry & Prose)

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It took me several decades to understand that a personal library or even a society could not be complete without volumes of poetry. Most excellent poets are hard to find while they are still alive and frequently not very prolific. Poetry is very private, immediate and transcendent. It also requires that people who love and understand poetry must support the efforts of poets they enjoy. I enjoyed this volume in the same way I love Whitman,Stevens,Dickinson, Pound or even Bly. Generally I prefer supporting live poets when I am able.
"American Girl" is an odd collection(almost a sampling tease!) of very good, very different poems. They pull you in and like all writing-invite one's introspection and wonderment. These poems are personal, lucid and haunting. Some poets know how to use language without letting it use them. Cory is such a poet-she holds out a phrase knowing full well it doesn't quite define something that happened to her that she didn't fully understand-in the first place. Cynie Cory knows the truth of life without being self-referential. True life and true love is a mystery. Should that prevent any of us from trying to hold it and share it with a friend?
I was struck by the personal, fluid mastery of English used by Cynie Cory holding forth on many truthful glimpses of reality tucked so obviously in her poet's quiver. Sharing poetry or "discovering" a poet can be fraught with peril. No such problem the this volume of Cynie Cory's it rings clearly like a bell. Like a writer who has found her voice. Her use of language contains no mistakes as what is vague or uncertain was meant to be.
Here's a few of her lines-

"If I live to touch her, I will cure the cold.
It's common, how you maximize forgiveness
like a shortcut to the store."

Clear, focused and open to other insertions or even completions but left pulling possibles out of the reader. Enter a "moment of the poet" and step out of your life for a breath of her's.
I have limited myself to a lifetime limit of 50 volumes of poetry and this is one is on the shelf. I am happy I discovered it.

Cory plays with images and puts it all on the table for everyone to see. In American Girl, Cory touches on almost all subjects dealing with being a female. She takes us through heartbreak, love, and even through gun rights. I believe that Cory put her heart into this book and the readers will see. A must read.

I've taken a couple classes taught by Dr. Cory so my perspective on her work might be a little skewed, but I think this book of poetry is beautiful. American Girl is held together by recurring motifs, such as the repeated use of water, that are intertwined with well placed imagery. Winter is also a common thread and the poems really bring the reader back to a time in their life that is tied closely to the seasons. My favorite poem is The Theory of Everything. It is all about not being confined and wanting to be free. Most poems of this nature are dark and depressing, yet The Theory of Everything is quite optimistic. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to dive into a great piece of contemporary American poetry.

This is the best book of poetry that I've read in a long time. Cynie Cory is brilliant and eclectic in her work, showing off a wide range of forms and subject matter as she questions the role of females in America. Her poems are quiet and deafening, meek and confident all at once. She doesn't beat around the bush, she gets right to the point. If you love beautiful images, there is much to be found throughout her poems, many that reoccur such as winter imagery, plums, directional references, etc. But the best thing about the book is that it does not give you any answers. Is Cory the quintessential American girl, or the underlying truth of girlhood in America? She leaves that up to the reader. Overall, a truly masterful book.

Great fun in this book of modulated and in some ways midwest-obsessed poetry. The great trick about this book is that it is both accessible and heady, experimental but not obnoxiously so. We see plenty of winter herein, and plenty of play with gender (as the title suggests, as the blurbs suggest). I am ordering more. I suggest you do too.

Cynie Cory, our very own alumnus of FSU is an amazing writer. Cory has been published in literary magazines as the non-profit literary magazine, Indian Review. If the cover of the book doesn't make you just want to pick up the book at once then I don't know what will. Aside from the brilliant defining poems Cory has brilliantly written I can't help but to admire the beautiful cover art of her book, American Girl. What intrigued me the most was the almost not meant to be seen writings on the cover, " winter never really finishes itself when the ice breaks free. It's still winter." Makes you think just like her many poems within this book. The amazing peaceful, befitting, and to the point poems is what makes this book so outstanding. This amazing American girl may just be among us Seminoles and we must keep an eye out for her and her future writings. This "American Girl" is definitely a must have in your collection of poetry.