Poems [Paperback]

John Poch (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 60 pages
• Publisher: Orchises Pr (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932535004
• ISBN-13: 978-1932535006
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,048,503 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chalk one up for formalness without stodginess, January 17, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Poems (Paperback)

Even the title of John Poch's first book, Poems, evokes the stuff of tradition. Opening its slick spartan cover and noting the table of contents--no cutely named sections, indeed no section breaks at all--might further reinforce the notion of a poet harkening back to a grander age of poetry. Peruse the titles: "The Kite," "Migration," "Song," "The Starlet," "House Finches," "The Oar," "Aubade." We might then be convinced of Poch's reverence for the masters, for "the old, high way" of poetry. Yes, his poems are chiefly and startlingly formal in the old, high way, speaking with the very pageantry they exalt. Careful yet intimate, Poch reflects his poetic heritage in such poems as "The Island": "You and your two palms, the hammock / of your arms between them, hold me here / half-dozing, half-composing a poem." In "Song," his craftsman's ear seems every bit as actively listening (and as beguiling) as Wilbur's: "Now, there is a fine vine fire blue / green illusion in your arms / no couturier could deal, no dress on a door could adorn." Other auditory jewels in the poem--"a deliberate witchery to your sobbing," "a chipped stack of black dishes," "tornadoed town"--work as words risen to music. This is the lyric mode, and Poch has spent a chunk of intellect on our reading it, hearing it, and rereading it. Buy this book and think of a young Auden without the politics and the burlesque.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry that does not dissapoint., November 7, 2005

By 

Michael "An Avid Reader" (Somewhere in the Stacks) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poems (Paperback)

I'm not the biggest fan of the genre of poetry.

So much of it has been either Hallmarked into submission or simply wallows in a dread that is of no interest to me. Life is too short to waste on bad writing.

John Poch is a phenomenal talent. His poems are easy to read through as a light snack; they can also be savored and gnawed on and turned into a full meal. The language is at once accessible and complex.

The sonnets make iambic pentameter seem easy, natural, and necessary. They provide a place where (see OCTOBER JOGGER) Kierkegaard and a Studebaker can rightfully exist in the same stanza. A poem entitled TREE SONG ON THE WATER happily coexists with the 25 delicious lines of RE-WIRING THE HOUSE.

Students and professors of poetry will have days/months/years(?) of productive analysis and debate ahead of them. Common folk like me have 63 pages of heartache, laughter, tears--a unique and beautiful look inside one person's soul and world.

Buy it. No regrets. I promise.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Refreshing, March 1, 2004

By 

Jimmy (Venice, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poems (Paperback)

After rereading some of these poems after a long time and reading others for the first time, I was reminded what a superb poet John Poch is. 'Tying the Knot' has to be one of my favorites and just demonstrates the command that Mr. Poch has over the English language. A wonderful book by a passionate poet...highly recommended read.