The Gravity Soundtrack (Paperback)

by Erin Keane (Author), Marci Johnson (Editor)
Key Phrases: Better Days

Editorial Reviews

Review
"I've been a groupie of Erin Keane's poems for years and thought a full-length collection of her hip verses long overdue. The Gravity Soundtrack was worth the wait. Poem after poem here will make you smile, pause, think a little, feel like flirting. The pages brim with music and bourbon, myths and ghosts, a dreamy nostalgia for a past that never quite worked bolstered by a melancholic wish for a future that probably won't happen. Still, somehow, the rhythms swing and the pervasive feeling is buoyant celebration. These are poems that want to party! Keane has a sharp eye, a melodic ear, a sassy mouth, and a big ol' generous heart that keeps getting in the way. Nearly every one of her tunes sounds like a hit." --Gaylord Brewer, editor of Poems & Plays (literary journal) and professor at Middle Tennessee State University

"Think of Joan Jett crashing the Miss America Pageant and reading her poems for the talent competition! And winning! It's deus ex machina on adrenalin. How refreshing to read a book that fills the modern world with mystery once again. Erin Keane's first book helps us 'find the coiled infinite inside' so that we end up fluent in the pure language of awe." --Rane Arroyo, author of The Portable Famine and winner of the John Ciardi Poetry Prize

"With a confident and alert use of language, this poet sets out to discover both the ground of what matters and the music to accompany the discovery. In poems that by turns whisper secrets, belt out hard truths, and deliver lines like a shrewd stand-up comic, Erin Keane has put together a book that is as entertaining as it is compelling. What a fine mix of irreverence, insight, craft, and intelligence. The Gravity Soundtrack rocks." --Greg Pape, author of American Flamingo and Poet Laureate of Montana

Product Description
With poems that are "as entertaining as they are compelling" (Greg Pape) The Gravity Soundtrack will please both veteran readers of poetry and those who've never before picked up a book of poems. In this debut collection Erin Keane explores subjects ranging from classic myth, philosophy and religion to rock 'n roll, pop culture and children's book characters. The poems are finely crafted, with a "confident and alert use of language" (Greg Pape), and each one shows keen insight into the nature of what it means to be human. In The Gravity Soundtrack, the poet is not a voice from above passing truths down to the reader, but rather is right there with us in the muck and mire of human experience--and, all along, shows great compassion for our questioning, our losses, our uncertainty. In the end, Keane has few answers for this questioning, but, still, the book leaves us with a feeling of redemption and hope. Is it our very stories, she says, that finally redeem us: "I couldn't give you/anything to hold, so take this wakeful night/know it can't make sense. What's left? At least/make it a good story. An offering, one last" ("Grievous Angel").

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Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: WordFarm; 1st edition (October 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602260001
• ISBN-13: 978-1602260009
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,237,201 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do you have a crush on the book cover? Or the poems inside?, October 31, 2007

By	Beth (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

In her first full-length collection, Keane imagines the interior lives of record clerks and air guitar geeks, as well as a probable encounter of Shane McGowan meeting her father at an after life dive bar. She approaches her subjects slyly and with love, but never with nostalgia or syrupy sweetness.

Long legs, a sharp tongue and a graceful pen, Keane composed a soundtrack all readers will want to hear.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a cool book that you should read, if you know how., April 7, 2008

By	M. R. Stokes - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Attentive readers have been keeping an eye on Erin Keane for some time now. While her earlier collections showed the promise of a remarkable talent, resting dormant like the proverbial butterfly in the proverbial chrysalis, the Gravity Soundtrack shows her talent blossoming in full, like the proverbial beautiful butterfly coming out of the chrysalis and realizing that is also a beautiful flower of mixed metaphor.

No, really, these are cool poems. If you like poetry; or if you had your love of poetry beaten out of you by reading musty old chestnuts in high school but are willing to accept the idea that they might still be relevant; or if you are indifferent to poetry but like bars, rock music or people; or if you like reading well-observed details about bars, about music, or about people who like them, you should read this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Takes poetry out of the libraries and lecture halls, April 2, 2008

By	A. Zipp - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's lowbrow poetry with a sense of humor. Feels like digging around in a junk store and finding that Rohl Dahl book you loved as a kid, half a conversation on the back of a postcard no one thought you'd ever see, and a serviceable copy of one of those albums that makes the critic's lists but you haven't ever heard. It's a good find.