Customer Reviews

The Butcher's Apron: New & Selected Poems Including Greed: Part 14

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Wakoski has been writing about food for years, but this is the first collection of her poetry specifically devoted to the subject. More than a "best of" this is a perfectly mounted love-poem to sustenance, and a furthering of Wakoski's own personal mythology combined. Along with reprinted, and new, poems about food, BUTCHER'S APRON also includes the long-awaited 14th installment of her epic poem "Greed." In it Ms. Wakoski explores the "Greed for Purity" through food, again, and provides the reader with a sadly rendered still-life portrait. This is a dynamic exploration thru verse.

The idea of writing poetry in an information age has never been questionable as it is now. "The Butcher's Apron: New and Selected Poems" not only challenges the role of language but it also abhors the idea of originality--Even the "oppressive" Victorians would have regarded such an experiment as mediocre. The reference to quantum physics is another attempt to rebel against contemporary society; almost as if to elevate the poet's unique character and diminish every scholar's existence. Obscure language and archaic metaphors were "in" thirty years ago, but now, especially when it's "cool" to be "out," such literary devices are, in fact, "out"-dated. Sorry, but this project didn't make the cut if only because the poet's language is no longer authentic, much less inspiring.