Customer Reviews

In Gravity National Park: Poems (Western Literature Series)

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Rawlins has a great grasp of language and place--his words interweave emotion and location (mainly Wyoming and parts of Utah) well, well enough to evoke the same. His language at times is a little too abstract, where description goes on without the reader knowing the subject. In these cases, consideration of the title or a more careful reading usually helps to decipher, but I am fan of more concrete language and symbolism in poetry. That small critique aside, this collection of poetry is wonderful. I have a particular attachment to these locations, the scenery, the lifestyles and people, and Rawlins' love of these things is evident. I am ready to pick up another of his collections.

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"'Love's a debt,' / ... Tin cup to catch heart's blood." -- "Late Friday, in December" (21)

"Sometimes, this is all we have-- / strong drink, the bump of bodies in the smoke, / voices sounding twice off varnished pine" -- "Late Friday, in December" (21)

"I know / the price of knowing" -- "On Knife Point Glacier" (39)

"In love or dream the world, / if we are lucky, is begun: / ... a wish that one thing live / for one thing left undone." -- "'Enter My Dreams, My Love'" (65)

"Too cold / to stand, let alone to think, / ... night composes night, / half darkness and half sense, / blooms in the willows, / bleeds into the water, / ... the first star swims up into view." -- "The Mink" (51)