Customer Reviews

Eve's Red Dress

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If you can get only one poetry book this year, make this the one. If you're looking for poetry that's original, inventive, well-crafted, and multi-layered, this is it. Lockward has sass, courage, and wit. Her Eve has many faces; she is Everywoman, yet totally unique. And don't make the mistake of thinking the collection will be burdened by religious allusions; there's more blasphemy than doctrine here. This is a collection about a modern woman's world, but it is definitely not for women only; men are welcomed into this world and are much in demand. This is a collection for anyone who enjoys intelligent and passionate poetry that surprises with each rereading.

I bought this book right after I heard Garrison Keillor read "My Husband Discovers Poetry" on The Writer's Almanac. I immediately loved that poem which turned out to be the last one in the collection. All too often when I buy a book on the basis of one poem I end up being disappointed. But not this time. The entire collection lives up to the promise of that poem. Again and again, Lockward made me laugh and cry, often at the same time. Her poems of love and desire are among the best I've read. But her subjects also include dancing, eating, gardening, clothing, and more. Lockward takes us through a wide range of moods. She is not afraid to face darkness, but she also knows how to have a good time. She displays an impressive verbal dexterity and creates stunning imagery. She clearly knows and practices her craft. In the end, I found this collection a complete pleasure.

Lockward's Eve is not the biblical Eve, but certainly one of her descendents. A real woman in a real garden, she dons a forbidden red dress ("red / as any apple she's ever bitten") and struts and dances through the pages of this wonderful collection. These poems are both sensuous and sensual, full of fruits, vegetables, flowers, cats, birds, and human desire.

Lockward writes the kind of poems that give the reader something on a first reading, but not everything. Individually and collectively, they resonate and linger in the head, calling the reader back; then each subsequent reading unfolds new riches, new surprises. This collection merits praise for its range and variety, its depth of sorrow, its humor, its verbal dexterity, its courage and risk-taking, its seamless organization, This is a collection the reader will return to again and again.

I am blown away my almost every poem in this collection. The imagery and passion that runs through her poems leaves me absolutely breathless. Her poems are very colorful and full of music, without bing syrupy or predictable in any way. I can think of very few other poets whose works pack so much emotional punch. I recommend this book for anyone who already loves poetry wants to read more contemporary poetry that is fresh and relevant to the everyday world that we live in. I also recommend it for the non-indoctrinated who want to know what's the big deal about poetry. This book is a joy to read and re-read. It is a shame that so many other lesser poets and writers are getting so much undeserved attention by academia and even mainstream media. This is an underrated poet who should be widely read.

I think that Diane Lockward's, "Eve's Red Dress", is a fantastic collection of poetry. As I read through the book, their wasn't a single poem that I didn't love instantly. It has very deep ideas about women mixed with fun ideas about fruit. Many of Ms. Lockward's poems are wonderfully suductive, but never raunchy. This book is truly fabulous - I highly recommend it!

I loved this book. The poems are well crafted and intelligent. They are poems that resonate long after the first reading. Lockward has a great sense of humor but also knows how to wrench the heart. Full of passion and energy. The collection is beautifully organized with one poem leading effortlessly to the next. An exhilarating read. Highly recommended. A poet to keep an eye on.

I highly recommend this collection for use in a high school classroom. Ms. Lockward's poetry is edgy and accessible. Her poems contain humor, attitude and heart, which make them easy to read and discuss with students, but they are also useful, in that Ms. Lockward's precision and craft is impeccable. The kids particularly enjoy the fruit and vegetable imagery. A must in a high school poetry collection.

These poems offer us glimpses into the twin worlds of myth and reality. Here we are always in the process of discovering. Here "truths" can be beautiful and dangerous. Consider some of these poems: "Eve's Confession," "The Blues Going and Coming," "The Mystery of the Missing Girl, and "The Properties of Light." If you have been looking for a talented, surprising and compassionate poetic voice, buy this book.

I recently discovered this poet in the new Poetry Daily anthology. I bought her book and immediately became a card-carrying member of her fan club. The poems are terrific--full of energy, humor, and feeling. Then the poet came to my town to do a reading. I was captivated by her reading style. And she read some of my favorites--"The Missing Wife" (funny and poignant), "Losing the Blues" (so musical it makes you want to get up and sway), "Pastiche for a Daughter's Absence" (beautiful love poem for a daughter), and "My Husband Discovers Poetry" (an amazing revenge poem). I hope to run into this poet again. Eve's Red Dress is an outstanding collection.

Diane Lockward's EVE's RED DRESS cleverly takes the many lives of Eve and brings her into a contemporary present of messy complications and unexpected delights. While "Eve Argues Against Perfection" and enjoys her "Vegetable Love" as it "turned to mush" and "grew mold and began to stink" we are initiated into "Eve's Own Garden" in which the secret (among many) is that this garden is as much a feast of dirt ("I have feasted/on dirt. A garden grows inside me...) as it is the "sweetbriers/so wild and profuse they bleed/over the fence, blood-red, scarlet, crimson./" that this garden dirt has seeded. There is an exuberance in the color and taste of words throughout this collection that renders even the unsettling moments, such as Eve being left by a lover who "goes back/to his wife", with portions of savvy (and saucy) poetry that generously satiates the reader. Even if Eve is in the midst of packing up her lingerie and pointing "the car west on Route 66 toward Paradise,//Nevada" she is enjoying her trip. Driving in the desert where she doesn't know where she is and beginning to panic, she lands us at "Tables for ladies/" where "a babe in a red satin dress/ and a biker chick in black leather" are part of the clientele, where she reminds us, with the waitress at the Diner, that "Honey, you're on your way to paradise,/home of the serpent." And indeed that home, and that serpent, prove a lot more intriguing and satisfying than anything we learned in Bible class. Here, we're offered "a cup/of coffee and a piece of apple pie?" Here "The Flavor of Sadness" is the strawberry that's "so darn delicious" someone "decided to preserve it". Here we learn new "Feeding Habits" and how to "savor the succulent flesh".