From Publishers Weekly
Kenyon ( The Boat of Quiet Hours ) portrays with meticulous detail the healing, regenerative force of nature in the cycles of human emotion and experience. Her understated, deceptively simple poems celebrate the pleasures of domestic, rural life--waking, walking the dog, wash day are here occasions for meditations on the natural world and the joys of ordinary existence: "All afternoon I lifted oak leaves / from the flowerbeds and greeted / like friends the green-white crowns / of perennials. . . . How I hated to come in! . . . " But underlying these observations is a subtle tension masterfully created by Kenyon's exacting language and alternating images of light and ever-encroaching darkness: "The sun drops low over the pond. / Long shadows move out from the stones, / and a chill rises from the moss. . . . " Her vision is ultimately one of faith and acceptance, as in the title poem, where she asserts, "God does not leave us / comfortless, so let evening come." While one of the poet's greatest strengths is her unadorned, prosaic speech, the language sometimes falls flat, marring an otherwise cogent and moving collection.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
"We sit with friends at the round/ glass table. The talk is clever." These opening lines of "September Garden Party" could well speak for all the poems in this third collection. Like considered and relaxed conversation, these pieces cover a wide variety of topics: recollections and reflections, moments of pleasure and melancholy, and wonderfully sharp visions of place. "She lay on her back in the timothy/ and gazed past the doddering/ auburn heads of sumac." Each line is fresh and beautiful, and the world of rustic New England lives with each image. "Nothing could rouse her then/ from that joy so violent/ it was hard to distinguish from pain." It is time we recognize that Kenyon is among the poets who stand tall among this new generation. Few writers see so well and speak so well of what they see. This volume belongs in any serious collection.
- Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
