Customer Reviews

In the Dark

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IN THE DARK by Ruth Stone. Copper Canyon Press, PO Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368; www.coppercanyonpress.org; angela@coppercanyonpress.org. 110+x pp. $22.00 hardcover, ISBN 1-55659-210-8.
Ruth Stone is 89, and nearly totally blind. At this age and with this condition, memories make up the substance of her life. For her, memory is virtually a sensation; memory brings her into an intimacy with her surroundings and her past. Feelings and moods are not transient for her. Rather, they are entire universes of different aspects of the world and existence. The "sadness of things/speaks for you." (from "Interim") The flower beds and lawns of a small college--one where Stone likely taught at one time--intone the "quiet authority of culture." (from "Border") The title is somewhat ironic, for Stone illumines her subjects in an almost preternatural way.

Ruth Stone's poetry has often been seen as melancholic or "dark" ; but her more recent pieces have an edge, a fierceness of diction and imagery that startles the reader.
"Living in hell, as I do,
the devil lies in my ear.
Violent endings, devastation,
I am either the shipped out cargo ..." ("The Jewels") etc.

Her National Book Award "In the Next Galaxy" carries her voice to greater peaks still. That voice will never grow old... different, yes, but rejuvenated.

Ruth Stone's poetry is inspiring,yet bitter in it's message on aging and loosing one's sight...

Ruth Stone's collection of poems, In the Dark, has no real punch. The verse it not particularly inspirational, the language and subject matter not unique, crackling, creative or pungent. In fact, there are few surprises here for the true lover of language. The narrative voice is muddled and confused. The sense of trajectory of the collection is bogged down and sluggish. Overall, this collection is a real disappointment for both fans of poetry or Ruth Stone's work.