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What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009

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Some poets are able to capture an extraordinary moment in their poetry, illuminating for the reader something completely unparalleled, something which makes the reader sit up and go, "Whoa, I wish I could have experienced that."

But other poets are able to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. They are able to reflect on something common (the burial of a family pet, a wife's arrival home, the endless cycle of tabloid news) and show each beautiful angle, each hidden emotion -- both comic and tragic.

Stephen Dunn's "What Goes Around" delves heavily into the latter, allowing the reader to experience ordinary life in new, glittering way. After spending some time with this book, I was left seeing my world with fresh eyes, seeing poetry in everything, as Mr. Dunn seemingly does.

This is a poet working at his full potential: confident but intimidating, cleanly lean but not boringly sparse, experimental but not alienating. It's a wonderful, fulfilling collection for any Dunn fan, and a wonderful introduction to his work for those not already smitten by Dunn and his transcending verse.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn presents What Goes On: Selected and New Poems 1995-2009, an anthology of brief, free-verse poems (and a few stream-of-consciousness paragraphs) that touch upon both the humble realities of daily life, and the captivating moments of imagination that illuminate life with breathtaking mystery and wonder. A vivid collection that smoothly interweaves elements of light and dark, What Goes On is a rapturous experience for poetry lovers everywhere. "My Ghost": The desirable place is always another place, / my father said. The restlessness continues. / His voice was calm, though disembodied. / He didn't appear to be complaining. / And it doesn't matter, he added. // Even at that moment I knew I was speaking / to myself. You were dreaming, my wife said, / and I told her the half of it / that tries to masquerade as all - his exact words, / no mention of his face being mine.

When a poet can make me feel uncomfortable and intrigued while reading a poem in the intimacy of my bed I know I have come across something that deserves praise. Stephen Dunn manages to take the most trivial of experiences and dig them into your flesh where they bury seeds of inquiry and reflection. Dunn makes the reader look back on his/her seemingly mundane life experiences and reevaluate the effect it has had in their life. Not many poets have the power to use simple words as a medium of such powerful expression.

Dunn's writing is not complicated in its words, allusions, or symbolism. The simplicity these poems are dressed in makes the message and feeling of them raw and exposing. Since the poems are stripped of heavy abstractness, the reader has no choice but to fully be overtaken by the bluntness of the subject matter talked about in each poem. In "Talk to God" Dunn writes about how humanity should thank God for all he has given, and he addresses that we commit sins because of the knowledge that was granted to us by God. It can be interpreted that the reason we are sinners is because God made us that way. Dunn wants the reader to question "if when he gave us desire,/ he underestimated its power." Dunn also wants the reader to be "sincere" when thanking God for the small beauties that live around us. The reader is pulled in two directions by this poem. God gave us beauty, but he also gave us sin, and we should be thankful for both.

The poems have nothing to hide, nothing to be looked into, only to be felt and thought about. While reading these poems I felt violated, in a good way of course. Dunn addresses love, infidelity, religion, sexual experiences and occasions as mundane as calling a friend, all of which have a sinister and/or erotic sense looming in the background. The poems contain a raunchy, unapologetic demeanor that caused me to tilt my head, widen my eyes, and jerk back a bit while reading them. The collection contains work from Dunn's previous collection as well as a collection of new work. The timelessness of his subject matter has allowed his poetry to still be as gut stirring in his previous collections as it is now and this collection of work encompasses a wide variety of work from his previous collections as well as his new work.

I wrote this when I was not quite finished with the book. Enough said.
Trampled by good Ideas

Dear Stephen:

I can only hang onto the torn threads
of your dirty bathrobe.
Then I must dust the floor
with my body. At least the floor shines.

Maybe someone will dance on the floor later,
or play basketball,
depending on the location
of this fantasy tryst I'm dreaming up.

I've given up dreams
of joining the NBA of poetry long ago
but if I'm lucky I may catch a glimpse
of your face from the floor, Who knows.

Maybe talent rubs off from obeisance
or from inhaling the cells of your skin.
Nah. Enough lying around eating humble pie.
I need to finish your book.

This fellow Dunn is a truly wonderful American poet... I've read the book twice in the last few days and am amazed at finding such a poet...certainly knows humnan nature and gettng into its psyche hope he sells tons of books for he gives good for the price of this volume...enough said!