Iron Wheel (Phoenix Poets) [Hardcover]

Greg Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0226527972 | ISBN-13: 978-0226527970 | Edition: 1

The poems in Iron Wheel are hard won, the product of the clash of cultures: Southern, religious, gay. Miller achieves an intense, disturbing, and singular poetic voice, capable of tenderness, but undaunted when forced to confront the harsh, often violent realities of contemporary life in the South.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

paper 0-226-52780-0 This slight volume by the Millsaps College professor, with its semi-formal verse, strikes a generally elegiac tone while brooding over the conflicts of being gay, southern, and religious. Word, in particular, sets the absolutist anti-gay sentiments of the Baptist South in the historical context of justifying slavery, and imagines suicide as one sad solution. Quieter poems create a collage of memories: doing farm chores with his father, his father cleaning corn husks for kindling, dressing chickens with his grandmother. The barnyard violence of Original Sin intrudes on an idyll of drinking fresh milk from the source, and the poet begins his deathwatches for friends and relatives, from stroke, old age, and AIDS. Northern places provide natural solace also, from clam-digging in New England to the image of an abandoned glass house, merging with its surroundings. Homosexuality here means both the sadness of a young boy exploited by his predatory teacher (Poem) and the lusts of an adult for a muscular, bare chested but wild Panhandler. At worst, student-profound, Millers modest verse occasionally rises to a hymnlike beauty. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

Apart
A Memory
Animals
Ariadne: 1
Ariadne: 2
Ariadne: 3
Chain
Charm
Chore
Clay Pots
Dark Horse
Desire
Dialogue
The Dresses
Farmer's Song
Fire Flowers: 1
Fire Flowers: 2
Fire Flowers: 3
Fire Flowers: 4
Fire Flowers: 5
From The Museum
Glass House
The Golden Gate
The Harrow
Impediments
In A Time Of Plague
Insomnia
Intensive Caer Waiting Room
Iron Wheel
Meditation At Land's End: 1
Meditation At Land's End: 2
Meditation At Land's End: 3
Meditation At Land's End: 4
Meditation At Land's End: 5
Meditation At Land's End: 6
Meditation At Land's End: 7
Milky Way
New Year
Original Sin
Painted Desert
Panhandler
Perspective
Phone Call
Poem: 1
Poem: 2. A Dream
Poem: 3
Revival: 1
Revival: 2
Revival: 3
The Ringing
Shield
Slaughter
Sockets
Song
Story
Stroke
Words
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 100 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (March 14, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226527972
• ISBN-13: 978-0226527970
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 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: #10,853,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Suave as Sin, May 25, 2000

By 

Sasha Ramirez - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iron Wheel (Phoenix Poets) (Paperback)

That's right, the poetry of Greg Miller tempts me to drink of the forbidden, the pleasures of beauty, the ecstasy of intelligence. I cannot wait to see what more he has in store for us.

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning and heartbreakingly beautiful volume of poetry., August 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Iron Wheel (Phoenix Poets) (Paperback)

Iron Wheel is the kind of book even people who think they know nothing about poetry will be moved by and return to read again and again. Greg Miller has the lightest and most exquisite touch. The descriptions of being gay in the deep South are truly unforgettable.