Customer Reviews

Memoir: Poems

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...to respond to a previous reviewer, but I can't let this mean spirited one stand as the only review to this book !
It may not be a great book, but it certainly is a good one...with the ability to engage the reader and tell a story in a way that can be very moving at times.

To fault someone for the color of their skin (WASP is as stupid a stereotype as any other), and the money in their pocket, is unconscionable and ignorant...and to be so critical and remain anonymous cowardly.
Add to that an F for spelling.

The grandmother mentioned is Margarett Sargent (not the birth control pioneer named), and the biography is the much acclaimed "The White Blackbird".

Ms. Moore has the ability to write in a way that I get a visual "picture" of her words...my favorite is:
"Anyone who calls a broken heart
a metaphor hasn't seen the crack".
I've had this book for many years, and it's been with me through my many moves, which says a lot for it, as so many volumes get weeded out as the boxes get packed. It's an old friend, one that speaks to me of tenderness, vulnerability, and emotional survival.

Honor Moore's biography of her ancester Margarett Sanger, a forgotten painter, is more interesting than this book of Memoir: Poems which lacks exciting language and shows no real imagination or originiality. Moore's position as a well to do WASP on the art scene and her patronage of arts has earned her a place in poetry which is not deserved by her modicum of talent. She should stick with patronage of the arts and not attempt to invade the artist's domain. For one example, her poem on nuclear holocaust, lacks all sincereity as it shows no knowledge of the reality of nuclear war, and no understanding of the science of what it would mean. It falls flat. Her understanding of AIDS is more compelling, as this subject seems to be something she knows a bit about. Moore is a poor poet and a better prose writer. Her tone is false and language lacks depth and sincerity. She should stick with her modicum of talent for prose and writing about her famous ancesters, and stay out of the poetry world where her work always falls flat and sounds dull in tone. Her use of forms is forced and her musical ear lacking. There are better poets to spend time with who deal with subjects like these. Memoir-Poems was not worth the price. Read Maxine Kumin, Adrianne Riche, Denise Levertov, Grace Paley, Daniela Gioseffi, Sharon Olds, June Jordan for some really poetic writing on many of these attempted subjects. Moore is okay, but nothing exciting or original glows from these pages.