Customer Reviews

What We Carry (American Poets Continuum)

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Adrienne Rich describes Dorianne Laux's poetry as 'tough, sensual...with physical details that add up to more than their sum...' It's what I like about Laux's poetry, she is sensual, sexual at the same time a tough woman. Her poetry is much like Kim Addonizio's, who is one of my favorite contemporary poets. And they are friends, so it is no surprise that Addonizio has lead me to Laux. Dorianne's poems range from poems about the innocence of childhood to the raw, sexual poems that close the volume. Dorianne Laux writes the kind of poetry that I love to read. I highly recommend her work, especially if you are a fan of Millay, Addonizio, Kate Light, or April Lindner.

What is beautiful about Dorianne Laux's poetry is that she disguises her metaphors, similes and other poetical devices behind language with which anyone can connect. She is not a simple poet; rather, her poems can be appreciated on many levels, by both average readers and other writers. Dorianne does what few do successfully: she takes the everyday and shows us why we can't forget it.

"What We Carry" established Dorianne Laux as my favorite contemporary American poet.

Her work is bold, spare and literally breathtaking. Her voice is so real, it is daunting. I can see the light pouring from beneath the door, feel the dust on the mantle, and breath in the odor of the rooms she describes.

The volume is always near my bedside, and I give it, sparingly, to only the most special of my friends.

Treat yourself to this unique experience.

what else can you say about ms. laux's poetry? she speaks the unspeakable, the things that most poets would never write about,the things that most women poets would never write about. they are very power , very sensual and will leave an indeliable mark on your consciousness....

Once again, I was drawn to a book of poetry by the title. It didn't hurt that Ms. Laux has a blurb on back from the fabulous Adrienne Rich. I usually read the title poem first to gauge if I like the poetry. The first line of "What We Carry" is as follows:

"He tells me his mother carries his father's ashes
on the front seat in a cardboard box, exactly
where she placed them after the funeral."

You just cannot stop reading after that and each and every one of the 37 poems in this little treasure are just as intriguing. The book is divided into three sections: 1) What We Carry, 2) Small Gods and 3) As It Is. The poems in the third section are seductive and sensual. Did I mention that I read the book in less than an hour? I don't often read entire books of poetry, but this one was that good.

I came across this succinct jewel in McKay's Used Books in Chattanooga, Tennessee today. I visit here about once a year (my daughter and her family live here) and never fail to find fabulous poetry. I swoop down on the poetry section like a hungry vulture on roadkill and have my fill. Today I came away with 14 or so books of poetry and change from my $50 bill. If you're ever in Chattanooga or Nashville, look up McKay's. They're the Wal-Mart of Used Books.

I came to this book as someone who had no patience for poetry. It was something that always bored me in junior high, and that boredom never let up. I think I've repressed most of it, but I still get haunted by memories of iambic pentameter, sonnets, metaphor, synesthaesia, metonymy, yada yada yada. So I was very suspicious when a friend handed me this book and said it was "nothing" like the poems I'd read in junior high. Much to my surprise, though, she was right! There's no metaphors or similies, no "prosody" or rhetorical structure, etc. You get the sense Ms. Laux is just like me, unable to see what (if any) relevance Dickinson or Pound or Keats or the rest of those boring old guys and girls have for poetry. Instead, these are GOOD poems, about feelings and emotions. Look at the title poem--there's not one metaphor in it! I love it, and I've pasted it on the rear window of my Chevette for all the world to see! WE NEED MORE POEMS LIKE IT!

Laux fools a young reader with simple language. Her poetry is fresh and answers questions that begg for pages with one word. She exemplifies what it is like to be human. She understands that somethings just have to wait

What We Carry includes poems of survival, affirmation and celebration. Sculptured, fluid and generous, these poems reveal a poet informed by experience and caring. In poem after poem we find the hard facts of life that need to be sung. Laux finishes her poem "Dust" -- sometimes/ God comes to your window,/ all bright light and black wings,/ and you're just too tired to open it." He does and we are

I was drawn to the rawnness of Dorianne Laux's poetry from the very first poem, "Late October." How many of us have felt the powerful grip of our own emotions as we are swept in a torrent of uncontrolable action? I also loved the imagery of "After twelve days of Rain." I found that I had to read this book in little bites. I just could not run through her poems in one sitting. After a month of reading I went back to read again and I'm sure that one half-drunk afternoon I'll pick this work up again and see what I missed on two reads. "Kissing" made me cry and "This Close" reminded me of someone I'd like to see again. I liked this book and someday I'd like to have a cup of coffee with the one who lived it.

I found these poems self-involved and lax. Somewhere the obvious surface meanings of the poems and the unfathomable depths she thinks she's approaching, Ms. Lux might aim for some simple human truths based on experience.