From Publishers Weekly
Tightly contained in distinctive two-line stanzas, these poems confront the poet's past and present, evoking ambivalence, anger and tenderness without excess. Van Wallenghen ( The Wichita Poems ) packs clean, sharp images and unusual detail into narrative; he takes risks, revealing a fascination with society's aberrants (a 400-pound man, childhood pariahs, alcoholics) and finding no subject taboo. Of a visit to a slaughterhouse, he remembers "all that precious offal / grocery stores disdained-- / whole hog heads for headcheese / fresh duck blood, fresh feet / . . . my father's friend would shout / above the squealing, bleating / foaming panic of the animals." By paralleling memories of his childhood experiences with ruminations on his own daughter's behavior, Van Wallenghen concludes that fundamental responses don't change over time: fear and uncertainty always hover; though they can't be mastered, they can be understood--"You'd have to be four years old / and afraid so far of nothing / in this life but monsters / big dogs and snakes to trust / this hanging on, this tilting world."
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
The Afterlife
The Age Of Reason
Atlantis
The Big Animal
Blue Tango
The Bottom Line
Bowling Alley
The Cat's Meow
Cat's Paw
Creative Writing
Fishing With Children
The Foot
Hamburger Heaven
Hanging On Like Death
Hidden Meaning
Hold It
Lake Limbo
Meat
Mother Bear, Father Bear
Part Two
Peach Isle
Roberta And Wilbur
Skating On The Black Lagoon
Sneaky
The Spoiled Child
Starship Lands In Cornfield!
Tranquil Acres
What's Wrong With Ufo's
Who's There?
Worry
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
The Age Of Reason
Atlantis
The Big Animal
Blue Tango
The Bottom Line
Bowling Alley
The Cat's Meow
Cat's Paw
Creative Writing
Fishing With Children
The Foot
Hamburger Heaven
Hanging On Like Death
Hidden Meaning
Hold It
Lake Limbo
Meat
Mother Bear, Father Bear
Part Two
Peach Isle
Roberta And Wilbur
Skating On The Black Lagoon
Sneaky
The Spoiled Child
Starship Lands In Cornfield!
Tranquil Acres
What's Wrong With Ufo's
Who's There?
Worry
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
