Look for a Field to Land: Poems [Paperback]

Elaine Preston (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1882593065 | ISBN-13: 978-1882593064 | Publication Date: June 16, 1994 | Edition: 1st

The poet travels the country encountering dysfunctional environment, loss and alienation, and celebrates the acceptance and renewal that come form a search for self.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This first volume of poetry to be published by Bridge Works is also Preston's first book. Both strengths and weaknesses are apparent in it. On the positive side, Preston is able to write with an appealingly indolent--and playful--sense of reverie, whether her subject is the past, the South, a climate or a season, or a very specific locale ("Along Route 41"). Her lines are long, loose, occasionally rather cummings- and Williams-like, flowing with an ease and a loopy humor that relax and gentle a reader. But there is slackness in the work, too, and it may be the slackness of a literary voice that is partly oral in motive and manner. The oral can refresh, but needs shaping and direction. Some of Preston's poems wander on too much; some of the language, intentionally vernacular, is vague, and not vivid; and sometimes her wit falls prey to gimmick. But the writer's sense of first-person fallibility in narrators can merge in an interesting way with her soft, free cadences.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This collection works well as a whole. Though the poems are often full of pain, there are also celebrations of self, as revealed in this opening line: "I like my tongue." At times, the persona speaks in a youthful and hip language: "starting a practice writing/to music someone like brought/to this workshop of mine." Preston relies heavily on repetition to establish rhythm and create meaning: lines like "veryvery much like you, yes witty justlikeyou,/i got rhythm, i got rhythm, tap tap tap" make "The Dance of the Blue Funk Nurse" come alive. Preston is also a keen storyteller: "One aged woman sat Saturdays/on her leaning stoop while traffic/lined the streets, searching/for the bridge. Her black skin shone/blue in the sun. Camellias curled." This is a work filled with emotion and intensity. Recommended for most libraries.
Lenard D. Moore, United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake Cty., N.C.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 74 pages
• Publisher: Bridgeworks; 1st edition (June 16, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882593065
• ISBN-13: 978-1882593064
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,566,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CRAPFEST!, March 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Look for a Field to Land: Poems (Paperback)

The world is filled with a plethora of would be poets, peddling their wares on the perpetual streets of the world, hoping for a buyer, hoping for a reader. Maybe for fame, fortune, or just for the plain pleasure of having somebody enjoy their creative work. Only a handful can attain the lofty rank of grandmaster poet, because there are very few people alive in this world who are intelligent and interesting enough to truly mark the soul with a luminous afterglow. There are even fewer who can exume the goodness in their hearts and articulate a masterfully poem written on paper. Unfortunately, "Look For a Field to Land" has no redeeming qualities, and I wouldn't recommend this to anyone -- even if I was being held up at gunpoint or it was a required textbook in college. As I flew in the perpetual airplane while reading this book, I was compelled to take it down for a landing prematurely. I ended up on Three Mile Island, but it was worth it, just to evacuate the damned thing ;) This book is a CrapFest.