Customer Reviews

Tackle Box (Anhinga Prize for Poetry Series)

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Patti White's use of dream sequences as inspiration for her poetry seems to me a major reason why the words seem to take on an almost mystical quality; while zombies hungry for love or teenagers mistaking cremated remains for drugs seem like completely bizarre ideas, foreign and removed from actual daily life, White's style turns the scenes into moving, poignant moments. And honestly, that's how many of our dreams are- completely illogical, but influential on a basic emotional level. In this way, "Tackle Box" becomes about the heart-breaking transmission of love to unrelated persons, not necessarily about the hilarious "bone cocaine." This is a perfect reflection of what Patti White called "the tension between surface and depth."

Most impressive to me was the adaptation of the poem "Tackle Box" into a short film (no--bloody epics are not the only poems to hit the screen). The cinematography was absolutely beautiful, and the music imparted some of the mystical feel of the poem. While it seemed strange at first that the movie utilized no spoken words, I quickly began to appreciate the effect. In poetry, words are used to create a vivid image, and so the words can easily be expendable in a strictly visual medium.

If you love language and poetry, you will love Patti Smith's work. This gem cuts to the quick. Smith's work is alive with humor, insight and honesty. What a gem! Don't hestitate. Order it now. Savor it always. She's amazing.

If there's a better poet writing in English than Patti White, I don't know who he or she is. These poems range in subject matter from classical mythology (Demeter, Circe) to rustic trivia (a dog's heartworm, a rain crow's nest) and are animated by a relentless sense of wonder; White pursues psychic connections that have no right to make sense yet somehow do--between a business school and an order of nuns, between lost cats and beat poets. The poem "Man 'O War Motel" is worth the price of the book by itself, a litany of violent death and grotesque loss that wanders into a meditation on Nabokov's Lolita. It is a heartbreaking, unforgettable work. "The Love Zombies" is almost as good, as is "The Tin Man." To paraphrase White, these are poems "that last." Read them for yourself if you care about poetry.