Vandals [Paperback]

Alan Michael Parker (Author)

Book Description

Series: American Poets Continuum | Publication Date: May 15, 1999

Just for fun, the vandals toss monkey wrenches into the machinery of life, wreaking poetic havoc.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Abandoning All Pretense, The Vandals
Another Poem About The Vandals
Before The Vandals
Between Poems The Vandals Go
In The Wrong Poem The Vandals
Only Vandals
Philosophy, The Vandals Say
Practicing Their Diffidence, The Vandals
The Vandals
The Vandals And The Moon
The Vandals Dying
Vandals, Horses
Without The Vandals
After The Poem Who Knows
And You And I
Appearances, The Vandals Know
At The Carwash The Vandals Sing
Chanson (ou Sont Les Vandals?)
Cruelty, The Vandals Say
The Fountain, The Fountain, The Vandals
The God Of The Vandals
Group Portrait With Vandals
In Abundance The Vandals
In The Abandoned Mine The Vandals
In The Pre-dawn Light Which Is The Poem
On The Turnpike The Vandals
There Is Another You
Under The Bigtop The Vandals
Vandal Sex
The Vandals And The Law
The Vandals And The Philistines
Vandals In The Garden
Vandals, Bees
Vandals, Noise
Waking From Another Dream, The Vandals
With Vengeance And Desire, The Vandals
Work, The Vandals Say
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author

Alan Michael Parker (www.amparker.com) is the author of five collections of poems including The Vandals (BOA, 1999), and Love Song with Motor Vehicles (BOA, 2003). He is editor of The Imaginary Poets, co-editor of The Routledge Anthology of Cross-Gendered Verse, and Editor for North America of Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: BOA Editions Ltd.; 1st edition (May 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1880238748
• ISBN-13: 978-1880238745
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 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: #1,878,204 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Got milk?, June 10, 1999

By 

Ron Hayes ([e-mail]) (Erie, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vandals (Paperback)

My fondness for the work of Alan Michael Parker makes it difficult for me to write a reasonably objective review of _The Vandals_; as such, anyone reading this should consider this a disclaimer and themselves duly warned. _The Vandals_ is brilliant. The poems are tight, clean, and precise with subtle, surprising rhymes and--typical of Parker's poems--inscrutible line integrity. Most of all, the poems of _The Vandals_ are at once smart and funny and, sometimes, just a little bit sad. Ultimately, _The Vandals_ reveals a lot about ourselves and our fellow humans while at the same time quietly imbuing poetry itself with a texture fascinatingly akin to personality. The amazing thing about it all is that Parker makes it seem so effortless. Utterly bereft of pretension or language bordering on the elite, the Vandal poems are extremely accessible. If I had a complaint, it would be that _The Vandals_ doesn't show the versatility that Parker demonstrated so well in his previous book _Days Like Prose_. As I waited for the release of _The Vandals_, I found myself really looking forward to another sonnet or two or some longer poems of varying length and/or subject matter. I have to admit that as I read _The Vandals_, I was a bit disappointed that the book lacked the variety I so enjoyed in the first book and that I was so looking forward to in the second. Nonetheless, the quality of the book, and the accomplished unity of the subject matter, (particularly as it so deftly countermands the title and all that Vandals [Vandalism?] represent) more than made up for any misgivings I had. In a way, it just makes looking forward to the NEXT book that much sweeter, and the reading of that next book that much more satisfying. I've often likened the experience of Alan Michael Parker's poetry (whether reading it to oneself or hearing it read) to the sensation of having too much chocolate in one's mouth. It is thick and rich and satisfying and delicious. Once you buy this book, make sure to keep plenty of milk on hand. You're going to need it.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Words that work., December 18, 1999

By 

Mandy Taylor (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vandals (Paperback)

In his book of poems about the vandals, Alan Michael Parker builds his poems like rooms. They become physical spaces to enter and exit, where the vandals act out their impulses. The narratives follow the raucous bunch through several situations, sometimes violent, often indulgently fun. Parker plays games with sounds that beg to be read aloud. The Vandals is speckled with wit, and it is deceptively simple on the surface; stepping further into the poems, however, reveals the complex layers. Parker makes his words work, but I believe they enjoy their job.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Wind Beneath My Wings, April 29, 2002

By 

Emeril Childs (Los Gatos, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vandals (Paperback)

Yes, his poetry sustains my life! Alan Michael Parker is the American answer to Tennyson's query about the true nature of the metaphysical order of logos. His poems ARE a thing of beauty when you read them. They reverberate from soul to soul, heart to heart, and wing to wing. Go out and buy this life affirming book!