Neighbor Blood: Poems [Hardcover]

Richard Frost (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1996

Poetry with mature wit and a heavy debt to jazz.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The poems in Neighbor Blood, like the title of the book, are unsettling. Richard Frost's unique viewpoint often puts readers into previously uncharted images, such as the speaker so obsessed with order that he lines up the corner of the TV with his dog's ear. He recounts how his boss was cremated and dropped from a plane "into a perfect curve," and admires numerical safety and fine lines--a visual kind of doodling. Many of Frost's poems are richly narrative, telling stories of a father's lethal justice or a dog's dilemma with an overly affectionate cleaning lady who insists upon kissing (and embarrassing!) the beast. Frost finds his own fine lines in his observations of the world, then he crosses them. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Frost, a jazz drummer and English professor, sets his first collection in 20 years in the world of visceral experience rather than abstract matter. In the title poem, an abused woman seeks refuge in the poet's childhood home, only to be followed there by her husband, who smashes his fist through the window. "...it's a long time/ since that neighbor blood was wiped up," Frost observes; "...maybe it's part/ of my blood now, or yours, or part of anybody's." In another, a couple whose children are grown falls asleep to the "thin bleating baby call" of a rabbit caught by a predator. Frost's strengths lie in the hinges of his poems where the reader can feel the deep connections that motivate his work. Usually, mortality lurks within these links, whether it's reminiscence of stroking a sleeping son, of a first haircut or of a brother dying of cancer. His tone is not pity but a wry, mellow compassion: "And yet I love you," he writes of a drunk brother who has disrupted a party, "and so I must wait/ until you're dead to publish this." Frost's pithy, epigrammatic style finds strength in silences as well as words.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 88 pages
• Publisher: Sarabande Books; 1st edition (July 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096411514X
• ISBN-13: 978-0964115149
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,677,915 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful....Couldn't put the book down, really, July 30, 2010

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E. Eike "God is My Reality" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Neighbor Blood: Poems (Paperback)

Once I started reading this fine book of poems I found myself wishing that the book was longer. It's a page turner; one doesn't want the poems to end...Frost tells a great story. He is the hitchhiker you pick up on a long road trip that unexpectedly entrances you with interesting and entrancing stories that flash with insight and carve themselves into the deep recesses of the emotional mind. You journey invited into his life experience and realize that you have made a friend; that he wants the friendship with the reader. I think his humor sealed the deal to rate this as an excellent work. "The Clumsy Man" has the courage to be honest and laugh at one's self...I laughed out loud at "New Tooth". [The thoughts we have while having a rubber dam in the mouth and are held captive....Absolutely crazy funny.] And the story of Edna in "Kisses" where Frost's dog seems to plead for deliverence from the "ugly" housekeeper only to find that he mutually shares the love of animals with the woman. "One Morning" solemnly speaks of his final visit with his dying brother, only to find that he dovetails with his brother's denial, avoiding truth. Frost is uncomfortable. In these last moments shared with his much loved brother Frost cannot get past the meaningless chatter to broach the moumental event that will soon come to pass. He leaves the visit let down, confused and numb...

This is an unpretentious, real, honest, humorous and profound work. The poems have rhythm. Upbeat and downbeat. Frost is not afraid to tell you who he really is. He "tickles your fancy" and leaves you wanting more.