Customer Reviews

Complete Poems (Phoenix Living Poet Series)

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Generally, I would say that I don't like poetry, but there are exceptions and I totally love this guy's work. He wasn't pining for love, he was angry and frustrated and working off his aggression through pictures made of words. Oh man, the way he puts words together - his poems just whine to be read aloud.

Several eons ago, I discovered Kenneth Fearing's poem "Denouement" while in the throes of high school angst. I kept an eye open for his stuff and, through the next decade, found just one more poem (American Rhapsody #3). Still, I considered even that small accomplishment a triumph. I am so glad his stuff is becoming available (accessible?) again. I've bought some of Fearing's poetry in first editions but this "Complete Poems" book can actually be handled whenever I feel like it (because the pages aren't fragile and browning and I didn't pay way too many $$ for it!). Thank You Robert Ryley!

Fearing must be the greatest unknown American poet of this century. He captures the ethos of modern urban life as no one else ever has. His work has a noir sensibility and finds an analogue in the city scenes of Edward Hopper.

It probably won't be said better than Thomas Disch says it in his essay on Fearing collected in his Castle of Indolence (the essay is called "Fearing, and Falling Out of Love"). It is also a meditation on the evanescence of literary fame--books, like bodies will turn to dust.

Check this essay out if you fear taking the plunge on this collection.