Customer Reviews

The Second Reason

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I had the incredible opportunity to listen to a live reading of Jenny Browne's at Brigham Young University this fall. It was there that I was able to fall in love with her poetry and her uncanny ability to turn any ordinary item, street or person into something worth noticing. She ties together the most unlikely topics like pregnancy and war (a personal favorite of mine). Someone who hates snow will still love her poem on skiing and other things that you wouldn't suppose warrant any attention from anybody will capture your fascination when described by the clear, refreshing voice of Jenny Browne. Hearing her read her work was a wonderful opportunity to really get a better idea of what she and her poetry are really like.

Jenny Browne's poetry is like a drink of cool water. Her voice is concise and crisp, her descriptions vivid and clear and her perspective is incredibly refreshing. The way she writes makes the mundane beautiful and in this book, "The Second Reason" the reader gets a glimpse into her very essence. Browne's poetry is personal. She fills it with her very soul and that is what makes her everyday observations so incredible. She is honest in her poetry in the most precise way. I can only hope to one day be half as brilliant and sparkling as Jenny Browne is with her way of expressing her innermost thoughts and feelings, put together in such few words but with such a clear meaning.

A tall drink of water is how I'd describe Jenny Browne's latest venture in poetry and it comes highly recommended.

Jenny Browne's poetry reads in dark riddles and puzzles, and this is a high-speaking compliment. I enjoyed the effort I took to discover each poem. Her poems lack adverbs, which is what she teaches to her followers, but they are dripping with complete images of precision and stagger- "And I have watched the spaces between/the scales of a garden snake expand/as animal moves through animal./I have squinted at the sky and seen the sun move through a pinhole/ and birth is still not like/anything."
She came as a guest author at BYU; I had an astounding time connecting the Jenny in-person to the Jenny in-writing. She possessed exuberant friendliness full of quick nods and smiles, I was sure she could burn more of that, and she spoke with wild, moveable excitement about almost everything that came out of her mouth. How can someone like this focus on the world and write things with care and stark such as "Two flies buzz the carcass of a black bean repeatedly" and "dishwater sky." Lesson I learned is do not judge an author by their spontaneity. She has a brilliant mind and intense way of repeating the dull world around her.
The collection generally read with a beautiful overcast; do not expect to be brought up to brighter heights and a new ability to reach your goals. You will come across themes of children, pregnancy, war, humor (on the grayer side), and mistakes. I definitely recommend her poetry to aspiring lyric poets. We can learn a ton from reading and experiencing her examples of the "invisible connective tissue" between the black words. White words will begin to appear and you will feel euphoric sensations when you discover a meaning.