Rating: 4 out of 5

I enjoyed the format of poem and essay again. And, as with the other volume I read recently, I didn’t find all the poems landed with me. But four I did enjoy were:

- If you knew by Ellen Bass
- How it will happen, when by Dorianne Laux
- Waving Goodbye by Gerald Stern
- Those winter Sunday’s by Robert Hayden

I suspect that these are the most literal poems. The ones that don’t feel inaccessible to me, that don’t intimidate me, that don’t make me feel the need to approach them as I would a cryptic crossword. Where I can get a feel without having to interpret.

Highlighted passages:

Good poetry is not merely a few thoughtful words to fill in an awkward moment. It is not simply sage advice or a gentle consolation. No, great poetry reaches down into the depths of our humanity and captures the very essence of our humanity and captures the very essence of our experience. Then it delivers it up in exactly the right words

With most poetry collections, I usually light up on no more than a couple of poems that strike me to the core

When something disappears, as it always does, we can see its precious value more clearly than when we were standing next to it.

death is not something that ends life, it is present in life throughout

Originally posted to my Goodreads account