THE GARDEN ROOM

by Joy Katz

A tense linen closet? A breathing ceiling? Well-behaved chairs?
In The Garden Room , a subtle, witty poet finds beauty and solace in household objects. Such material trappings, rather than being entrances to memory and experience (a la Proust), are experiences in and of themselves. Even as birdsongs""fail to say, fail to make, fail to say, fail to make""neatly enacts the inability of language to represent the world, Katz's never-resting mind creates a palpable, vivid universe.

Genres: Poetry

33 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

Reviews

[Bonnie Jean Michalski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book begins with a Gertrude Stein epigraph, and like Tender Buttons, the poems are all titled after objects, but these objects are quite clearly all in one room. The poems are a complete departure from Stein in their syntax, and the way they infuse objects with emotions is completely un-coded. That isn’t to say that we aren’t to suspect that something of the poet’s context doesn’t find its way in, as Stein’s did, but the realm of these poems is often collective, and though the objects of the poem make up one room, Katz infuses them with the world outside of the room: “The purified fleets of nations have pulled in./Christianized themes read out behind high, aroused doors.” Objects in these poems are fascinatingly active in the process of observation: daffodils might “startle like gunshot,/a punch in the face; the white of bedsheets might “flood the space between my eyes.” This book doesn’t have to be read as a companion to Tender Buttons; the poems are immediately pleasurable on their own. But if such a reading interests you, read “Birds”(p.18) and decide for yourself how Katz reads Stein.

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can the sentiment "welcoming" be described? It must be found inside a home, by looking into its rooms, their arrangement, their approach to a muted ecstasy. What I find so pleasing about this book is the intellectual take on home, almost a definition, while at the same time conveying that warmth a home connotes. It's a subtle connection played through all the poems in the book.

[Douglas · Rating 1 out of 5]

These poems are short and difficult for me to comprehend.

[Brian Morrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

so, uh, i learned to read a book called the garden room by reading this book: the garden room. hmm.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems are restful.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are moments that I really like and moments that I'm just not sure I get.