Customer Reviews

White Boots: New and Selected Poems of the West (Carolina Wren Press Poetry Series)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What you will find in William Pitt Root's White Boots is "the stuff of fields and forests/ the odor of earth freshly stirred." This is poetry by an American master, offering one man's lucid vision of what Allen Ginsberg named "Planetary News." As an added benefit, Root's writing offers wisdom--quite a bargain; ten bucks gets you music and magnificent language, plus directions on finding those elusive handholds without which our existence is barren; "no leaf is the tree, no tree the land." These reflections cast by his words mirror the treasure all about us, uncover the seep that quenches us as "blinking our way blindly into the dark canyon," we go on. While there is the temptation "to remain among stones/ a stone" there is a greater pull for "the living [to] keep hold of the things/ that bind them to those gone."

White Boots is a work of illumination by a writer who urges us "to stay in touch while the sun burns on." In "Above Blackhawk Where Air Gets Thin," a cat and mouse game takes place between ferret and chipmonk. The struggle is over quickly; we're told "No drama at all." On the contrary, Root has fashioned the great drama which we witness in all of his work, the elemental, everyday struggle that engages us whether we participate or not. He reminds us constantly of the sanctity of the beasts--he is insistent on this-- who share equal footing with humans in his life and his art. Slugs, wolf dogs and owls are featured and it's rare to find judgement passed by the poet. Perhaps that is what shocks when reading the ending of the brilliant "At the Foot of Holy Mountain"--"all the idiots of appetite/ pursue each other blindly/ by the jeweled light of their jeweled eyes." Is he speaking of predator and prey as described in the poem or is this line the succinct portrait of 21st century man and woman?

William Pitt Root does keep his "tools sharp" (check out his other books to see what I mean) and he instructs us that "we shine, and the world/ everywhere around us/ gives us back/ our shining." Buy this book (this work of love and humanity) and journey with the poet through the American West and beyond "utterly ablaze in the ark of the skull."

*White Boots* is an uneven collection of poetry. Though all of the poems flow well and work. I found the connection they make with the reader sometimes lacking. Some of the poems in the collection are down right great, such as "CRAFT" in which Root fleshes out what the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest have lost in just over 200 words...and it really sticks with you. And, in "ABOVE BLACKHAWK WHERE AIR GETS THIN" he captures the essence of forest wildlife in even fewer words. Other poems such as the title poem, "WHITE BOOTS" work well and leave a bit of an after thought behind.

But other poems in this collection just left nothing behind for me...an important trait in a good poem. The read well, the prose works, but the connection is just not there. When I acquired this book, I had looked forward to reading it based on a few poems read in the store...unfortunately, the collection as a whole was a bit of let down on the emotional connection.

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A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.

2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.

3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.

4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.

5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.