Customer Reviews

SAVING LIVES: POEMS

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
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2 star:		(1)
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Albert Goldbarth proves once again that he is one of the undersung masters of American poetry.Saving Lives is easily his best poetry collection since Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology which came out nearly ten years ago. With the opening poem "Library" and through middle ground such as "Her Literal One," Goldbarth weaves a spell of love, magic, and humor. If you've never before dipped into Goldbarth's work, Saving Lives is a great place to start. Though the poet is probably best known for his longer narrative poems and his love of the planets and stars, both become muted here: these are shorter poems than what readers might be used to though their length compromises none of the typical Goldbarthian fire. And while Goldbarth hasn't abandoned his love of hard science and sci fi and all things in between, the poems in this volume stay mostly rooted on earth, focusing on what keeps the human heart beating.

Simply put, this is a wonderful book, a great addition to any library and a must for any reader interested in Goldbarth's work and his impact on contemporary poetry.

This is just the type of book that wins these types of awards. Goldbarth's poems tend to be prosey and verbose. He has some good ideas behind the poems, and a few good lines. But that isn't what we read poetry for--ideas. Where are the images that can't be forgotten? Where is the play that language does so well? This is a poet like Jorie Graham, one who tries to say something, then gets bogged down with free association. There is some good stuff in the poems, but as a whole they are a let down. The opening poem, "Library" happens to be a poem where this works, but it is a list poem, and you can get a little wordy in those. The book runs a little long for a poetry collection (over 120 pages). Goldbarth could have used a good editor cull it some.