Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Breathe easy..., March 5, 2006
Breathe easy, these poems will flow like wine over your lips. Flint's last collection before his untimely death in 2001 is as fresh as his first. He writes with a breezy, plainsong style that begs to be spoken and heard. And as I had the privilege of having him as my poetry professor at Georgetown ca 1980, I hear the poems in my head as he would have read them. There is Flint's usual tongue in cheek joking, especially about sex, as in "Monkey House," "Never Again Would Birdsong," "When I Invented the Rose," and "Berkshire Massage Works." My favorite poem is "Easy," the title piece. As a reader of poetry for 25+ years, there aren't too many poems that move me to tears anymore. This is one. How could such a simple poem about domestic nothingness mean so much? It's not merely the subject matter but how Flint says it, the intonation, the word choices, the flow- so easy: He finishes with: "how easy it is, the times like this, when it's simple." Yes, so easy...
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5.0 out of 5 stars
Joy Rediscovered, October 5, 1999
By A Customer
I have never been able to say this about any other book: I enjoyed EASY so much that I read it through twice in one sitting. Roland Flint is a writer of great heart who has suffused each of the thirty-seven poems in his new collection with quiet beauty. It is hard not to feel grateful after reading these poems, and most people will most likely also be more aware of the pleasures they take in daily life, the ones they might not readily recognize. In one of the poems in the book's third section, "Strawberries Like Raspberries," Flint describes the delight of eating a perfect pear in such clear detail that I immediately thought of a pear I had recently eaten and wished for another. Flint's language is always lucid, his lines and stanzas crisp like fall leaves, and there is sometimes an autumnal melancholy to his poems, e.g. "After the Spanish Mass with Nena," "Pamela," "Grief November," "Prayer." Others, however, are more celebratory: "Never Again Would Birdsong" and "HaHa" examine the link between laughter and sex, revealing that the two are often closely related. Still others amuse with anecdotes or mild wordplay: "Henry & June the Movie" and "Land of Cotton." This is a collection in which readers will rediscover joy. Praised be Roland Flint! Praised be!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Thoughtful Pleasure, September 22, 1999
I have never been able to say this about any other book: I enjoyed EASY so much that I read it through twice in one sitting. Roland Flint is a writer of great heart who has infused each of the thirty-seven poems in his new collection with quiet beauty. It is hard not to feel grateful after reading these poems, and most people will also be more aware of the pleasures they take in daily life, the ones they might not readily recognize. In one of the poems in the book's third section, "Strawberries Like Raspberries," Flint describes the delight of eating a perfect pear in such clear detail that I immediately thought of a pear I had recently eaten and wished for another. Flint's language is always lucid, his lines and stanzas crisp like fall leaves, and there is sometimes an autumnal melancholy to his poems, e.g. "After the Spanish Mass with Nena," "Pamela," "Grief November," Again Would Birdsong" and "HaHa" examine the link between laughter and sex, postulating that the two are often closely related. And Movie" and "Land of Cotton." This is a collection in which readers will rediscover joy. Praised be Roland Flint! Praised be
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
