Entire Dilemma: Poems [Hardcover]

Michael Burkard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1998

A lean collection by a "poet's poet" who writes of existential possibility in plain English.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Human relationships in all their quotidian brilliance are the focus of this seventh collection by Michael Burkard. While William Wordsworth professed to write his poems in "the common language of man," Burkard actually achieves a linguistic accessibility in his poems without sacrificing lyricism or imagery, as in the title poem: "The blackbird is sewing a song for you / to wear. A heavy song. All the heavier, for it is a song you will / always wear, and wear it upside down."

One of Burkard's fascinating traits is his timing. Often his poems are of a well-rounded moment, compounding image and meaning with a sense of soft closure in the final lines. For example, in "Driving Through Her Father with the Desert" he describes the metamorphosis of a woman, "Not painful, / not tearful. / Odd like a light / when you don't need one." In "Sober Ghost," closure illuminates the poem's recursivity when he writes, "There is an alcoholic shine to that darkness. It's enough of a longing / to make me tremble. And then I turn back, as I do here." --Susan Swartwout --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The devastation of alcoholism and the loneliness of sobriety, the demands of death and memory and the challenges of language itself all find their way into Burkard's sixth collection, following 1990's diaristic My Secret Boat. Poems like "The Summer After Last" brilliantly strike a balance between melancholy lyricism and Burkard's customary imagistic candor: "I do not want to belabor invisibility,/ but if it isn't there in the spaces/ among the people as a spiritual thread/ then I do not want to be there either.// Sea or no sea, house or not." If not actually addressed to friends or lovers, the poems often call and respond to half-present figures, as Burkard haltingly revises relationships, building to a quietly impassioned pitch: "I am thinking about planets in orbit. Lives orbiting other lives. Insatiable." Such internal ruminations are interrupted by descriptions of colorful characters ("Mr. Nobody," "Mel," "The Boy Who Had No Shadow") who provide comic?if surreally violent?relief. Other poems in Burkard's more ruminative mode can be too abrupt, hitting the page in angular chunks ("[Y]ou were there./ They said so, you agreed.// You left/ to see// if you could know her from afar") that are often less than self-justifying. Still, such moments seem intended to mirror life's fragmented successes and failures (especially in the more harrowing narratives), and give the snatches of lyricism a deeply sweet plausibility.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 88 pages
• Publisher: Sarabande Books (September 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889330175
• ISBN-13: 978-1889330174
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,480,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entire Dilemma as Kind Friend, September 6, 2000

By 

Donna Munro (Grand Rapids, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Entire Dilemma: Poems (Paperback)

At times I carry Entire Dilemma around as a sort of companion and protector. When I'm riding the bus or waiting somewhere for time to pass, I read my friend. What makes this book so alive for me is Burkard's kind voice. There's no flash, no bull, yet it penetrates through the swirl of loud and profane discourse. Lovers of sparkles and shimmers and chiffon, lovers of cum and cusswords and suicides, go look somewhere else. This book is for people who are ready for the truth.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book of poems., June 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Entire Dilemma: Poems (Hardcover)

What I love about these poems is how subtle yet powerful they are. The book begins with a snapshot of the ordinary: the poet having a dream about a man he knows named Fred. This rather mundane human experience forms the first layer of many layers of the complex intimacy that is a Michael Burkard collection. There is a poem about how to ask to have a book back that the poet once gave away. There is a poem about socks. And these collide with the deeper, more painful poems about thinking about getting sober, not getting sober, getting sober and finally staying there. Poems about a life lived, and also the lives not lived. These are poems clearly written by a contemporary master. They are kind, wise, funny, they make you go "oh yeah...I know what you mean!" They make you stop breathing for an instant, as all good poems do.