Leaving a Shadow (National Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Heather Allen (Author)

Book Description

Series: National Poetry Series | Publication Date: May 1, 1996

A National Poetry Series winner, selected by Denise Levertov, which deftly explores the natural world.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Denise Levertov, who chose these poems as part of the National Poetry Series, describes Heather Allen's poetic style as one of "profound intimacy," meaning that the poems have the ring of truth, that they seem to come from lived experience. The poems make deep connections between the natural world and "the landscape of the soul," as Allen writes in the title piece. These are the kind of weighty poems that will reward many readings.

Product Details

• Paperback: 75 pages
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press; First Edition edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556591136
• ISBN-13: 978-1556591136
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,897,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars LIFT THE NEEDLE OFF THE BROKEN RECORD, November 23, 2003

By 

Sesho "www.sesho.libsyn.com" (Pasadena, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Leaving a Shadow (National Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Heather Allen is one of the most severe cases of poetic repetitiveness I have ever seen. She basically makes poems about water, trees, deer, and fish, and that's it. Yes, there is a hidden world that lies beneath everything we see but do we have to read 50 pages of it??? Another metaphor that she does to death is the whole life is a series of concentric rings and circles deal where everything affects everything else. Ho Hum. She uses the same symbols over and over again with no variation and she doesn't really connect with humanity in her poems. Everything is about Nature. I could have written the same poems sitting at a campfire with a beer and looking around describing the night. I have never seen so limited a poetic vision before. I would go back and count how many times the same exact phrase is used throughout the poems, but it's not worth it. I know poems can act as refrains, but this just feels like laziness in this case. To me, this also makes Denise Levertov, the poet who picked Allen to have her own book, have suspicious credibility in my eyes.