Customer Reviews

Finding the Islands (Finding the Islands Ppr)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Finding the Islands was a followup to Merwin's collection Asian Figures. It contains variations on Japanese haiku, but while traditional haiku have a clear structure and a particular perspective, Merwin's versions are mixtures of more random or transparent imagery. As such, they don't convey the same kind of identifiable wisdom as traditional haikus. In fact, they come across often as glittering fragments and bursts of imagistic language with no referential background. The traditional or convention reader who reads them looking for any kind of metaphor or signification beyond the fragments will be disappointed. Those who give up all expectation going into them will enjoy them immensely.

This book has the most beautiful love poems I have read in a long time. The lyrical style of trisects lay layer after layer of image down to create a deeply felt sense of place and relationship. My breath was taken away with these lines that end the poem Turning to You, "I want to be buried / under your heart / where I was born" The poet trusts the reader to experience the poems and does not feel the need to lead the reader by the hand with spelled out narrative. I deeply appreciate this book; it will be placed on my shelf of most treasured books.

There are poems by Merwin that I like, really like, but they aren't in this book.

His style here is hard to get inside. He writes three lines then a dash then three lines through the whole book, and his diction sounds like refrigerator poetry -- very imagistic, very noun-heavy.

Each poem feels difficult to put together into a real poem, not just a list of images and sparse ideas. Too difficult. I didn't like it much.