Customer Reviews

EchoLocations

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I recently came across Diane Thiel's selection, featured by Poetry Daily... and was struck by the poem, "Kinder und Hausmarchen" (the original title of Grimm's fairy tales). I could relate to the blend of dark fairy tale and stories of war in the poem. I was led to her web page... and was impressed by the poems there too. This book is filled with truly strong work. Here is a poet with an ear for the nuances of language. (I liked the few lines of German in the book (4 total) - since they had a distinct purpose. And I appreciated the "Notes on the Poems" page in the back which defined them). Diane Thiel's work shows both skilled technique and passion. My strongest recommendation!

This book is beautiful inside and out (great cover). Diane Thiel is an extraordinarily lyrical poet, masterful of both form and free verse. The poems in "Echolocations" are on themes as diverse as the effect of war on people for generations after, the life of women, and science and the environment. Thiel's language is compressed--it is almost impossible to find a superfluous word--and powerful. The imagery is vivid and evocative. The title poem is representative: the poet encounters the skeleton of a whale on a deserted beach in Colombia. In entering the skeleton, she embarks on a journey from the personal to the universal. In extraordinarily resonant language, Thiel makes us FEEL the connection between all living things and lets us hear the whale's--nature's--song. This book of poetry is an invitation to a journey that is well-worth taking.

Echolocations rings true! Some of the poems speak to my own experiences as a first-generation American. The poems can be read on many levels (the true sign of good art), as the reader journeys to new and familiar places and depths. The language is rich, textured, beautifully crafted, but never overly ornate (a problem with too much contemporary poetry). I especially love the way in which a simple word (like "heart") often acquires new potency when used in unexpected ways and contexts. For example, in the title poem, the poet walks inside the skeleton of a whale she encounters on the Colombian coast and reaches the place that "must have held her heart." She imagines she could have hidden inside the whale's vessels (to escape the violence of her childhood). As she touches the whale's bones, she is pulled into a mystical journey towards the hwaelweg (the whale-road, an Old English kenning for the sea):

...I felt the sun-warm bone against my skin - and a sudden heartbeat in the skeleton. Her heart beat with a distant beckoning, and in a moment I was with her, traveling The hwaelweg, the road itself another kenning...

In this book, one poem speaks to another. The theme of the first part, the effects of war on future generations, is echoed in the other three sections which contain poems offering observations on the lineage of women, love, and re-connection with the natural world. Diane Thiel uses form delicately but is not bound by it. The book is a fine blend of free verse and form, providing music in this exploration of important, timeless themes.

Diane Thiel's book is a joy and a delight to read. It is clear (from each of her poems) that the author has an intuitive, natural grasp of the musical quality that is essential to good poetry. It is also clear that she has the talent for approaching her subjects in a way which gives them the universality and timelessness that are the hallmark of great poetry. One of my favorite poems in this book, "Tea," is a perfect example of this, and of Diane Thiel's ability to integrate subject and form to create true art. What begins as a moment of quiet contemplation, smoothly and naturally turns into a powerful evocation of the fundamental nature of love: its ability to shake the core of one's being. The choice of the sonnet form not only matches and enhances the subject but, because of the use of vivid, unusual images such as the earth's tectonic forces, opens new vistas for the form itself, re-invigorating it. In the end, no description of the poem can do it justice-one has to read it. Fortunately for those who may be wondering whether they would enjoy Diane Thiel's poetry, her web pages (www.dianethiel.net) offer a good sample. Unfortunately, "Tea" is not included-you just have to find the book but, believe me, "Echolocations" is worth the effort.

A stunning first book, rich in imagery and nuance. Evokes a life deeply re-membered. These poems, song-lines, echo with history, with personal courage, with self-transformation. Unfold each poem, line by line, like you would an old map. It will carry you to the center of your self--the only place you will ever find treasure.

As a librarian, I obtained a copy of this book after it was recommended for general collections by Library Journal. I read it cover to cover and was struck by the power of poem after poem. The book opens in the trauma (or "traume" - "dreams" in German) of childhood filled with the impact of war and violence, and ends with a vision of hope for the future. The different sections drew me through a range of emotions. I have been recommending this book daily to the poets and lovers of poetry I know.

Diane Thiel won Story Line's Nicholas Roerich Prize for a first book, which is a good sign when trying to decide whether or not to buy a book. I've found that the books that win this prize are generally good one. And Diane Thiel's book is a good one. She writes formal poetry with great attention to the rhythms and language of the poems. They are graceful poems and more often than not, the endings are stunning. And it's no wonder that her book won the award. If you look at the acknowledgments page, you'll see it runs a page and a half. It looks like just about every poem has been published in a journal, and several in award anthologies.

The book is divided into four sections. Section one, "Kinder-und Hausmarchen" deals with her father and her German heritage. It reminds the reader a little of Plath, but Thiel doesn't have the extremes that Plath thought she had. The poems are darker and hint at a rough childhood for the narrator. "He brought them with him--the minefields./He carried them underneath his good intentions./He gave them to us--in the volume of his anger ["The Minefield"] And one of the best poems in the book, "Love Letters," is found her. It's a poem about a woman learning German to understand the language of her husband and children. And the coldness returned sums up what this section is about--a distant father.

Section 2, "Memento Mori" (which is a reminder of mortality, failures, or mistakes) contains the best poem in the collection, "Memento Mori in Middle School." It's written in loosely rhymed terza rima and is about the narrator's oral (with visual aids) project in middle school. Thiel takes us through each of Dante's circles from both the child and the poet's understanding. This poem alone makes the collection worth buying. The rest of the poems in this section also deal with childhood.

Section 3, "Distance" is more loosely themed around adult love and loss. "South Beach Wedding" (about a couple strolling onto a movie set wedding) and "Bedside Readers" showcase Thiel's wit.

The final section, "The River Blued", seems a sort of catch-all for the left-over poems. There is no theme running through it, but there are some interesting poems. "History's Stories" is a twelve lined poem that echoes itself at the end of the line. And the echoed words create a phrase that sums the poem up. I forget the name of the form, but she does it well, and it doesn't seemed forced. She closes on the title poem, which seems fitting as the narrator walks through a hwaelweg (noted as 'whale-road, Old English kenning), and brings the whole collection into completion and touches on all themes in the book.

Echolocations is a well thought out, well written book. It's an impressive collection of poems, much less being a first book. It's a book I highly recommend, and one I think you will enjoy (especially if you enjoy the work of Kim Addonzio, Kate Light, April Lindner, Morri Creech, or Dana Gioia).

I loved this book - the depth and resonance of each poem. I like the compression of the work as well. Diane Thiel covers great distance within a few words. Consider this poem, "Swallow": It may take one/tiny hollowed skeleton/on the stoop below/for the eyes to rise and see/the swallows nesting/beneath the window. Or "Perception" - in which the form of repetition is altered quite deliberately to convey two different perceptions of a painting (by the painter and the subject). Thiel also has a strong narrative style in her longer poems. I was thoroughly impressed by her book.

At least the author seems to try her hand in making sense of her lyric thrust. The first section of the book is overly ornate with teutonic diction, the others tepid with unimpassioned verse. Echolocations is best read with the lights off for there is little imagery to be seen, or for what matters, located.