Bonfire: Poems by Connie Wanek (MVP) [Paperback]

Connie Wanek (Author)

Book Description

Series: MVP | Publication Date: June 1, 1997

These images flare up and illuminate

Editorial Reviews

Review

Wanek's world has space for us all, finding mystery in the routine, and deliciously attuned to the seasonal rhythms of the north country. . . . One of the most satisfying collections I've seen all year -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

About the Author

Connie Wanek was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She lives in Duluth, Minnesota where she is a public librarian and renovates old houses with her husband. The author of two books, she is a 2006 Witter Bynner Fellow in Poetry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: New Rivers Press; 1st edition (June 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898231787
• ISBN-13: 978-0898231786
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,835,561 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 Soft, Sweet Poetry, October 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bonfire: Poems by Connie Wanek (MVP) (Paperback)

Wanek used a lot of simple images. Smooth, rolling lines that flowed together connect very well. She took things that were beautiful and turned them into concrete pictures. She used ideas that you can relate to. I felt as if there was a one on one connection. She used a lot of common everyday images. These are poems that could be looked at 10 years from now and still be current. I felt there was no emotions in the poems. No sadness or pain. I liked it that way. Connie Wanek's poetry gives you a sense of depth. I found her words to be very confident. When she used words of abstraction, they usually left me with a clear solid image in my mind. She uses ideas that I have subconsciously thought, surfaces memories.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Memorable First Collection, April 7, 2011

By 

Rob Jacques "Technical Writer" (Puget Sound) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bonfire: Poems by Connie Wanek (MVP) (Paperback)

This book, Connie Wanek's first poetry collection, has all of the hallmarks of her later two collections: clear, clean lines on common subjects that give the reader unexpected insights. Her images are memorable, such as this gem from her poem, "Red Fox":

"The fox
saw two dogs at the bay window, watching,
their coarse, domesticated faces
full of eager malevolence, like ex-wives."

Her treatment of simple, humble subjects often invests them with personality that catches the reader's attention. For example in her poem, "The Gelding," she introduces us to a cynical, mean horse that has been through the school of hard knocks:

"As I recall, the black horse just appeared
undelivered, unrequested,
dusty and skinny, like a tramp
with his hat in his good hand.
He was used to pity. He could work with that."

And how many poems have you read about sea gulls? I suggest that Wanek's poem, "Aesop's Sea Gulls," captures the character of this solipsistic bird better than most with stanzas like this one:

"A child holds aloft a French fry
and they're on him, a scrum of gulls
bickering like politicians.
Now bold, now obsequious,
they flatter him out of his last morsel."

And I love the poem's aphoristic closing line, "Those with wings have no need of morals."

My favorite poem in the collection is "Radiator," one that's been anthologized for good reason. A bland, easily overlooked machine takes on a life of its own as the poem progresses toward a curiously unsettling conclusion that radiators (like us) feel a sadness, "unlovely, slowly growing cold."

I look forward to one day buying "Connie Wanek: Collected Poems"!