Customer Reviews

Antarctic Traveller

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an undiscovered gem, cherished by those who have read it. That Katha Politt no longer publishes poems and devotes herself to writing columns for the Nation is a great tragedy. Her columns are inevitably inconsistent and often predictable. Her poetry is extraordinary and vibrant, although perhaps not to the taste of the same people who admire her column. My favorite poem might be Turning Thirty: Home, you write feverishly in all five notebooks at once, then faint into bed dazed with ambition and too many cigarettes...... Oh, what were you doing, why weren't you paying attention that piercing blue day, not a cloud in the sky, when suddenly choices ceased to mean infinite possibilities and became instead deciding what to do without ..... (forgive the typography)

This is a collection of poems that are both accessible and intelligent. It's hard to imagine a literate reader who would not find a great deal to admire and enjoy here.

Katha Pollitt is certainly a better writer when, as an essayist, she is discussing issues of Women's choices in contemporary society. This book is just a bit disappointing when having read her journalism and essays, but one shouldn't hold that against her. I found the shorter poems to be the most interesting, and risk taking.