Equipoise: Poems [Hardcover]

Kathleen Halme (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1998

A book of poems that reads like a two week vacation at the shore.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In "We Grow Accustomed to Dark," the first poem of her second collection, Halme cruises down "the black sash of river," past the detritus of the old South, the crass commercialism of the new, and through to her own more intimate memoirs of "the cotton shop/ where we bought summer." Seemingly on an extended, coastal vacation with her "polite Southern husband," Halme uses her moments of repose to both deflate and celebrate bourgeois life, where "a whalish blimp chubs by/ to tell us where to eat tonight." Her graceful, self-aware lines well capture "full beauty/ in moments, in flashes," particularly in "When the Sea Laughed Itself into a Foam," an eerie, near-sestina on seeing a new house overcome by the sea. Elsewhere, she muses on sexuality ("The Wanton, Harmless Folds of Dreams") relationships ("Antidote to Adultery"), parents and vegetarianism ("Girls/Metaphor/Meat"). Poems like "Beignets for Breakfast" can yield to a too-clever academic literalism, where "this town is lush with hummingbirds/ whirring a larkspur blur/ of long reflexive verbs," while others ground themselves on shoals of generic abstraction ("in the night that isn't night"). But pithy, entertaining riffs on adult life are Halme's forte, and there are plenty of them here: "The genius baby licks pollen from a gardenia/ her father holds out for the pretty neighbor./ All give in to deliciousness."
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Library Journal

In Halme's (Every Substance Clothed, Univ. of Georgia Pr., 1995) straightforward second book of poetry, the female protagonist lives on the North Carolina coast and experiences rapture, beauty, and only an occasional edginess. Sex and sensuality are taken in stride, as in "Growing Accustomed to the Dark," where embedded in a litany of ordinary sights, a girl is "relieved of the burden of virginity" in one line. In "Plain Poem," an elderly man who has lost his bearings wanders into "a true, Easter egg morning" and falls asleep on an unfamiliar porch. When the police come "there is no balking or pushing to be seen/ as we turn and go inside to have spring sex." Life seems easy in these poems as anxiety is subsumed by physical beauty. This is a good book to escape with if one isn't focused on the social issues of our day. For general collections.?Ann K. van Buren, New York Univ., Sch. of Continuing Ed.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 68 pages
• Publisher: Sarabande Books (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1889330191
• ISBN-13: 978-1889330198
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,208,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Equipoise Review, April 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Equipoise: Poems (Hardcover)

Kathleen Halme's Equipoise is a wonderful book of poetry infused with imagery that brings the book alive for her readers. Her beach imagery, especially, is amazing, from the ocean that "...ate the gazebo at the fat beach" to "the live oaks dangling with Spanish moss" along the swamps. Halme paints beautiful pictures with her images, while addressing such varied subjects as autonomy, love, rape, nature, and mistakes. I would highly recommend this book to anyone intersted in poetry.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A recommended read, April 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Equipoise: Poems (Paperback)

Outstanding work overall. The sounds attached to each other and almost poured themselves onto the page, and kept me reading. Even unpleasant pictures were painted beautifully. How anybody can make me smile watching a snake ingest another is beyond me, but it happened. Halme's work in Equipoise manipulates almost everything one can do with the letter "s" and the sound of it. Halme shapes water and color much the same way Doty does light. Equipoise is plain English constructed in ingenious ways, molding connections between the entirely unrelated. Impressive and pleasant.