Customer Reviews

Kenneth Fearing: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)

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I don't own this edition but do have fond memories of poring over the old Indiana University Press edition in the library...Fearing was the only poet to complement perfectly the great period of film noir and I always enjoyed his poetry more than his prose...he is the great master of modern alienation in verse, middle class suburban neurotic breakdown, unspoken fear and paranoia, portraying the poison of untrammeled American commercial culture at its most corrosive. It's not surprising that we never learned the lesson from him because he is also the most criminally neglected American poet of the century. Thanks to Mr. Polito for resurrecting him.

Kenneth Fearing: Selected Poems (American Poets Project)

First of all, it is well worth noting that every Library of America volume I've ever purchased has been of first quality, well executed and gorgeous - their American Poets Project is no different.

A delightful representation of Kenneth Fearing's work...the poems contained herein from his first volume, Angel Arms, are worth the price alone. A Depression-era poet, his poems feel particularly relevant today, further, his work has influenced a multitude of today's popular poets. Familiarity with Fearing's work lends insight to the poems of Asbery, Simic and others.

Despite amazon's tediously slow delivery, I highly recommend this volume.

A real discovery for me, having thought I knew what went on in 1920s, 30s American writing. These poems capture the street, the world of advertising and film noir, rhythms of jazz and popular music, and critique society instead of disengaging from the world like so much poetry of the time seems
to do.

Kenneth Fearing has long been one of my favorite poets. However, I have deliberately refrained from reading this excellent selection of his work until now, for fear that it might influence me unduly in my role as Chief Judge of two of America's premier poetry contests. The qualities that now strike me on this fresh reading, are not just how contemporary these poems feel, but how personal. Fearing usually speaks directly to his readers, addressing them with the pronouns "I" and "you", asking direct questions and assuming the readers have made replies at various points. Looking at the anthology SAILING IN THE MIST OF TIME: Fifty Award-Winning Poems, I notice that Susan Keith in her acclaimed, first prise-winning "Remembrance", also employs the same technique most effectively. So does Kristopher Smotherman in his second-placed "Papa Bill". Third prize-winner, Jessica Morrow, also forcefully adopts this direct approach in "For Jen", an elegy. She writes: "I was thinking of you again. Your words that day in Chandler, the curb outside the convenience store scalding our hands, our thighs, holding sunshine dry in our mouths. Throwing secrets into oven air. I wish I remembered exactly what you said, I wish I'd listened better." Yes, Fearing would be proud of his inheritors.