Review: Catching Light by Kathryn Stripling Byer

Genre: Poetry
Series: No
Pages: 62
Copyright:  2002
Publisher: Louisiana State University Press
Buy: Amazon

Summary: from Good Reads
In Catching Light, Kathryn Stripling Byer searches for the language of aging, for a way of confronting every woman's fear of looking in the mirror and seeing an old woman staring back. Inspired by a series of photographs entitled "Evelyn" -- which depicts a former artist's model in her declining years, still full of life and facing death with flair and wit -- Byer finds a voice to contemplate the enigmatic but inevitable process of growing old. Byer opens her book with a ten-poem sequence, In the Photograph Gallery. "'Who is she?' / a child hanging on to her mother's skirt / asks, as if she is frightened / by what she sees. 'Just a little old lady, ' / her mother soothes / 'That's all she is.'" By placing Evelyn herself in the gallery to respond to the photos, and hear that exchange, Byer opens the door into the inner life of this "little old lady."

Part Two moves into more personal, mythological territory as the images of Evelyn and the poet's own recollections coalesce. The final section draws closer to Evelyn's dark hour, her humor in the face of death, her memories, her acknowledgment of her sexuality, her letting go.

Catching Light is a profound inquiry into aging and how one remarkable woman faces it, sings to it, mocks it, rebels against it, and ultimately embraces it.

Feelings: 
I read this collection of poetry out loud, one each evening before I went to bed. Some of the poems were a bit on the dark side for me, but I enjoyed the act of reading aloud before turning out the light at night. The poems take a close look at getting old and what that means. Take what you have left and live was what I took away from most of the poems. However, there were a few that looked at death a little closer.

I would recommend this volume of poetry. It asks to be read aloud, and the sound of the poems is wonderful. Because of the subject of the poetry this will not be for everyone.

Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav

Title: Love & Misadventure

Author: Lang Leav

Type: Poetry Collection
Genre: Poetry

Series: No

Pages: 176
Copyright:  2013

Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing
Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads

Lang Leav is a poet and internationally exhibiting artist. Awarded a coveted Churchill Fellowship, her work expresses the intricacies of love and loss. Beautifully illustrated and thoughtfully conceived, Love and Misadventure will take you on a rollercoaster ride through an ill-fated love affair- from the initial butterflies to the soaring heights- through to the devastating plunge. Lang Leav has an unnerving ability to see inside the hearts and minds of her readers. Her talent for translating complex emotions with astonishing simplicity has won her a cult following of devoted fans from all over the world.

Feelings:
This collection of poetry by Lang Leav was touching. Each poem was very short and concise. However, even though they were short they still carried a lot of wait. The poems spoke of love, and the adventures that come with it. The book was divided into three parts: Misadventure, The Circus of Sorrows, and Love. Each section looks at a different aspect of love.

I read the book in one sitting while I was waiting in a doctors office. Normally I would try and give a book more time that this but I just kept wanting to read more and I did have a rather long wait. While I did feel that some of the poems in the collection needed a second read, I found myself doing so immediately, they were mostly light and easy to take in. Even though the subject, love, isn't always pleasant the poems about loose were still deserving of second reads.

These poems will resonate with those that have been in a relationship and felt the ups and downs that go with it.

I highly recommend this collection as a short read. The poems are short but the style has much to offer the reader even in such a short space.

Dog Songs by Mary Oliver

Title: Dog Songs 
Author: Mary Oliver 
Type: Poetry 
Genre: Poetry 
Series: No 
Pages: 127 
Copyright: 2013 
Publisher: The Penguin Press 
Rating: 4 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads
A collection of new and favorite poems, celebrating the dogs that have enriched the poet’s world

Beloved by her readers, special to the poet’s own heart, Mary Oliver’s dog poems offer a special window into her world. Dog Songs collects some of the most cherished poems together with new works, offering a portrait of Oliver’s relationship to the companions that have accompanied her daily walks, warmed her home, and inspired her work. To be illustrated with images of the dogs themselves, the subjects will come to colorful life here.

These are poems of love and laughter, heartbreak and grief. In these pages we visit with old friends, including Oliver’s well-loved Percy, and meet still others. Throughout, the many dogs of Oliver’s life emerge as fellow travelers, but also as guides, spirits capable of opening our eyes to the lessons of the moment and the joys of nature and connection.

Dog Songs is a testament to the power and depth of the human-animal exchange, from an observer of extraordinary vision.

Feelings:
This book has a different feeling from past poetry that I have read by Mary Oliver. The poems are all about her dogs and I felt like they were simpler than some of her other writing. I still really enjoyed the poetry and am glad I read it. The simplicity of the poems adds to the human dog connection that these poems demonstrate.

One of my favorite poems in the collection was The Sweetness of Dogs. It is very simple but it shows how dogs lean on our hearts.

Percy, meanwhile,
leans against me and gaszes up into
my face. As though I were just as wonderful
as the perfect moon. (p. 61)

There are thirty-five poems and one essay included in here and I thought it was a nice tribute to dogs and their people. I could argue that one of the poems felt more like an essay to me but that really doesn't matter. This is a collection of poetry for those that love dogs. Dog Songs sings to the dogs in our lives and those before, reminding us how much they give us in the simple act of love.

The Best American Poetry 2011 edited by Kevin Young and David Lehman

Title: The Best American Poetry 2011 
Author: Many 
Editor: Guest Editor: Kevin Young, Series Editor: David Lehman 
Type: Poetry collection 
Genre: Poetry 
Series: Yearly publication 
Pages: 211 
Copyright: 2011 
Publisher: Scribner 
Rating: 2.5 out of 5


Summary: from Good Reads.

The latest installment of the yearly anthology of contemporary American poetry that has achieved brand-name status in the literary world.

Feelings:
I think there were about 8 poems in this edition that I really enjoyed. For me the forward and introduction may have been the best parts of the book. David Lehman talks about what makes a poem great. He admits that this will vary by individual.

Poetry is "what gets lost in translation" (Frost); it "strips the veil of familiarity from the world, and lays bare the naked and sleeping beauty" (Shelley); it "is the universal language which the heart holds with nature itself" (Hazlitt). (page ix)

Kevin Young in the introduction talks about the economy of poetry and while it reflects the world it hasn't had a similar recession to the global economy. He argues that in tough times we need poetry.

The poems I encountered take on the world, including the workaday one, with real imagination, giving the lie to the idea that poetry is unconcerned with earthly matters. To me that's exactly where poetry lives--not only in the ether, though it may have its place there, too, but in the dirt and deep mud. (page xxi)

The introduction does a really good job tying this collection together and giving them more of a meaning as a whole. That being said, I didn't not enjoy most of the poems collected in here and wondered if this really was the best poetry America has to offer. Reading the biographical information the authors provided reads as though they are all professors, maybe 4 have different professions and another 4 didn't list their occupation. This makes me wonder if there is some club of poets that you can only enter as a professor of English or Creative Writing and thus join the authors that are getting published in this anthology. Now that I've had my dirt about this let me mention the poems I did think were worth reading.

Valediction by Sherman Alexi about depression showed how hard it is for those outside to understand and help the depressed.

To My Lover, Concerning the Yird-Swine by Julianna Baggott a request of a lover about love.

In November by Alan Feldman talks about family.

Morning on the Island by Carolyn Forche is observations of life on an island. This is a simple yet deep poem, I know some will disagree with me.

Word by Jude Nutter a poem about growing old and loosing language.

Pantoum for the Imperceptible by Bianca Stone I enjoy the form of the pantoum even though it adds a since of confusion to poems.

The Poem of the Spanish Poet by Mark Strand This is an interesting poem in that it has 2 parts one imagining to be the Spanish poet and the second that the imagining wrote.

Elegy by Natasha Trethewey an elegy for a father.

Out of about 75 poems I found that these 8 were the ones I might want to come back to later. I can't guaranty that I will think of them later, though. I think if you want to get an idea of where American poetry is this series might be a good place to start I just object to it being called the "Best American Poetry" because I hope there is something better out there than this.