Customer Reviews

Nature: Poems Old and New

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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My introduction to May Swenson came when I recently met the person to whom all of her work has been bequeathed. I found May Swenson's work to be very accessible, which is not the "vogue" in poetry at the moment. Anyone can understand and be touched. Her childlike humor mixed with her sometimes profound subject matter makes this book a treasure trove of sweet, funny, heart-wrenching, fascinating poems that you'll want to flip in and out of over and over again. It has made me interested in the rest of her work and life.

May Swenson weaves surprising humor, vivid detail, and startling imagery into her poetry. It's always alive with fresh ways of describing the familiar, and held together by a subtle but strong philosophical thread. She has the knack of writing immediately accessible poetry that's never watered down, never less than rigorous & precise -- yet she never lets the reader see the intricate structure behind the brilliance of the image. There's always the sense of a fiercely intelligent spirit at play in her work.

The poetry gathered here is about Nature ... but we're not talking about a vague, bland, greeting card version of Nature. This is the world both harsh & beautiful, bleak & transcendant, often astonishingly erotic & intimate. Reading her poetry is like drinking a particularly rich & sparkling wine, tinged with rare spices. And in reading, all your senses will be dizzy & dazzled before you know it. Most highly recommended!

I am not a poetry guy; I really like horror fiction by Stephen King and Clive Barker.

However, my 20 year old daughter loved it the first time through and still sometimes pulls it out to reread some of her favorites; sorry I'm a bad father as I don't recall which ones.