Likely: Poems (Wick Poetry First Book Series) [Hardcover]

Lisa Coffman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Wick Poetry First Book Series | Publication Date: November 1996

"Lisa Coffman is a major poet in the making. Imagine a voice that combines hear-of-American brooding like James Wright's with a shaded elegance like Elizabeth Bishop's. Imagine Whitman's spirit somewhere in the vicinity. Imagine a love of small towns ringed by mountains, a shrewd ear for lonely folks' dialogue, and a music that seems to pour out of your own life as you read these poems. Likely is a book brimming with surprises and beauty; some of the poems--'Rapture,' 'The Products of Hog,' 'The Graveyard'--left me breathless."--Alicia Suskin Ostriker, Judge

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Coffman's skillful, absorbing collection was selected by Alicia Ostriker as the winner of Kent State University's 1995 Wick Poetry Prize, an award given annually to a poet who has not previously published a full-length collection. In long-lined narrative poems steeped in detail, Coffman links the past century's miners', mill workers' and farmers' wives with their present-day descendants, depicting circumscribed lives filled with daily grace and loneliness. In "Glenmary, 1990," Coffman writes: "Summer: one child's in the cellar for lying,/ four shout with the high voices of running/ where the yard grows dark." This journey into the soul of working-class, small-town and rural America avoids risky territory, touching on a passive frustration without ever fully exploring it. The poems often end in soft generalizations or safe natural imagery. "Rapture," which owns the provocative line, "I have thought I might be a hater of Jews," concludes: "we must turn of a piece/ but there is nothing so good/ as the row of furrows cut in the earth." Coffman is at her best when she refuses to pull her punches, as in "Romeo Collision," which moves directly yet with subtlety into the intersection of love and fear.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

About The Pelvis
Beaded Tongue And Groove
The Boy With The Blueberries
Brother Ass
Cheerleaders
The Cicadas
Cold Sunday
Courage, Or One Of Gene Horner's Fiddles
Dog Days
February Landscape With Moons And Hearts
Fever
Five Sapphics To A Friend On Returning From A Trip
For Najeema, 6, Who Admitted To Hitting Renee
For Sheila's Julia
Girl / Spit
Glenmary, 1990
The Graveyard
In Envy Of Migration
In Fraser's Mills
In Trout Season
Learning The Butterfly
Leaving New York City
Likely
Maps
Memling's Virgin
On A Mill Worker In Rockwood
The Products Of Hog
Pulled Down
The Quality Of Sweetness In Men
Rapture
The Road To Canso
Rogue Gene
Romeo Collision
The Simple Day
The Small Town
Walking Under A Straw Hat In Tuscon
Weather
What The Day Is Made Of
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Hardcover: 62 pages
• Publisher: Kent State Univ Pr (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873385543
• ISBN-13: 978-0873385541
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,189,255 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful verse from a new star poet..., December 17, 1998

By 

S. Bove "sbb" (Mill Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Likely: Poems (Wick Poetry First Book Series) (Paperback)

I recently bought a copy of this 1st book of Poetry from Lisa Coffman. I found it in the famous City Lights bookstore in San Francisco: haunt of Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, and other "Beat Generation" authors -- so she's already made her mark with a buying department thats tuned into the best of our emerging talent! This is powerful writing from a passionate new voice: it resonates with images and emotions familiar to all who have lived, loved, and evolved in the heart of old America (as opposed to the new West-coast America). I believe Lisa Coffman has quite a bit more to say and that she will undoubtedly ripen with our generation (the current 30 somethings) to become one of our noted laureats. I also think many of these verses could be turned into fine popular songs (but that's just my humble opinion).

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is amazing, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Likely: Poems (Wick Poetry First Book Series) (Paperback)

I have had the pleasure of meeting this very talented poet. She is an amazing writer, so full of details and life. These poems really have a lot of truth and feeling in them. This is one great book that you will always remember.

5.0 out of 5 stars Test of Time, July 2, 2010

By 

MARYANN MCFADDEN "reader, writer, editor and ... (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Likely: Poems (Wick Poetry First Book Series) (Hardcover)

I've been reading poetry for many, many years, and there are few books I admire as much as Lisa Coffman's "Likely." It remains one of my all-time favorites. Coffman never tries to impress in the hip-slick-cool style of so many poets trying to demonstrate how smart they are. She's too subtle for that, and too honest. "Likely" is a treasure, a pleasure, a book quietly ringing with the humility and authority of the very best poetry. I highly recommend it.