In her first book, Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields, Ashley Capps sounds like the voice of a fresh generation of poets, where the familiar turns suddenly elliptical, straight talk goes engagingly crooked, and the lyric negotiates with the matter-of-fact. Desperate for something solid to believe in, Capps still mistrusts authority, feeling disenchanted with God, family, eros, even her own impulsive self. And yet while the absence of faith hints at despair, these poems often achieve, almost inspite of themselves, an odd buoyancy. Playful, fearless, wary, there's a dazzling resilience in this book. One poem can make a grand and eccentric claim, "I forgive the afterlife," while another takes as its title something humbler and more poisonous, "God Bless Our Crop-Dusted Wedding Cake." No matter how adrift this poet may feel, poetry itself remains her anchor and lifeline.
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I love the scorching details of Ashley Capp's poems, as well as their withering honesty, their modesty, their crazy imagination, and their cunning. And I love their moral stance and their gracefulness. From time to time I feel that it's all been done and the new poets have nowhere to go, but then I come across a poet like this and I know the art is living. If I looked for a single adjective to describe her poems, I would come up with the word "courageous." She has already achieved a great deal. -- Gerald Stern
From the Publisher
"Sometimes poetry is able to bring us the news of how people survive--not necessarily through its content, but, as here, through its transformational means. Ashley Capps tackles the desolations of spirit and personal history with such astonishing vitality that the green tangle of music, sadness, and formal resourcefulness of this book seems not only redemptive, but heroic."--Dean Young
"I love the scorching details of Ashley Capp's poems, as well as their withering honesty, their modesty, their crazy imagination, and their cunning. And I love their moral stance and their gracefulness. From time to time I feel that it's all been done and the new poets have nowhere to go, but then I come across a poet like this and I know the art is living. If I looked for a single adjective to describe her poems, I would come up with the word "courageous." She has already achieved a great deal."--Gerald Stern
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Trust me on this one,
By
This review is from: Mistaking The Sea For Green Fields (Akron Series in Poetry) (Perfect Paperback)
When I was young I liked to write messages, put them in bottles and then toss them in the river behind my house. In a not un-similiar but somewhat reverse spirit I like to pick up a book of poems now and then. I would recommend burning through this book, then going back and re-reading the ones that seemed to speak most directly to you. Here's to a very successful, intelligent, first book by Ashley Capps. I'm very glad I found it.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like Thunder,
By Reader (NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mistaking The Sea For Green Fields (Akron Series in Poetry) (Perfect Paperback)
but lightning.
I first found these poems through "I Used to See Her in the Field Beside My House"--a poem, quite bravely, about a cow. But that poem--that hokey, pastoral thing you had in mind evaporates when you begin Capps "cow poem" with the lines: Perhaps it is the way your nipples, long like fingers on an open hand, and when the poem reaches its conclusion with a call to the Cow, listen--forget the deep pools of rain that pock the lit, green land- scape of your youth. Forget the singing man who rubbed your head. He's readying the rape rack... until finally the killing concluding line: Old girl, there is nothing in this world that loves you back. Then you really know you're dealing with a different beast entirely here. These poems dare and make good. They CPR the tired lungs of the poems you always wish they weren't and they aren't. What they are is electric, all alacrity and no wasted breath. (Which reminds me: Do not miss "The Nearest Simile is Respiration.") These poems are on their way--with or without you, Reader. Where they're going, (on every single line) is where you want to be. You saw it. You were there-- that enormous claw, dangling like a polite, ridiculous teacup. No poem disappoints. Buy it. Read it. Quote it. Capps is for real.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautiful Collection,
By Tasha Cotter "Tasha Cotter" (Colorado Springs, CO) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mistaking The Sea For Green Fields (Akron Series in Poetry) (Perfect Paperback)
I was lucky to read some excerpts from this collection on the internet earlier this year. After reading some of her poetry I knew I had to get this book for myself. I am so glad I did. I have committed the first poem "Hymn for Two Choirs" to memory. Everytime I say it aloud it leaves me with a sense of hope that I can't put into words. It is rare that I come across a poem I like so much. The entire collection is a work of art. Oftentimes I carry this collection with me in my purse. I have read it through several times. I will be looking for her next book for sure. If you buy one book this year, buy this. I can't recommend it enough.
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