Customer Reviews

What Animal (The Contemporary Poetry Series)

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Question: What happens when a person with no talent, with nothing to say, save for some intellectual trivia and arcane vocabulary - what happens when such a person is allowed to play with words and call it poetry?

What happens when such a person is allowed to wallow in pretentious obscurantism, allowed to write lazy, bland metaphors and defend it by saying she's trying something new, hiding behind the label "language poetry"? Sophomoric sense of drama, self-confused and self-pointing mangling of syntax, mixed metaphors, corny intellectual enjambments, description after bland description that lead nowhere - What do you call this grammatical mess?

Answer: This book. Which is truly garbage of the lowest kind. Of the 200+ poetry books I've read so far, this book holds that most special of places: garbage.

Buchanan has given voice to creatures all over the planet - creatures whose silence, it turns out, was not for lack of intriguing intelligent and emotional thought... Her poems are frightening, heart-breaking, and snuggly cute all at once... ("The Ducks and The Bicylce", "The Guinea Pig and the Green Balloon", "The Only Yak in Batesville, Virginia"). I have never loved poetry the way I love Oni Buchanan's masterpieces.

Ms. Buchanan's debut is a delirious admixture of surprises. The quality of her thought and impressive control of her lines and imagery make her a young poet far and above many others in her generation. Read this book and you'll encounter worlds you've never known before.

Buchanan combines all of the elements that one could hope to find in a young artist: passion, precision, extravagant imagination and brillaint virtuosity. The volume runs the gamut from the accessible (and devastating) "The Guinea Pig and the Green Balloon" to the denser (but no less rewarding) "Secret Arsonist" poems. This book will open your heart, your mind, and your ears; repeated readings will only reward you with new insight into her unique sensibility--and the tragedy of human life--of this I ham certain.