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The Contracted World: New & More Selected Poems
The Contracted World includes representative poems from four of Peter Meinke's previous collections. In poems that show us what it is like to grow up in America, love, nature, cities, sports, war, and peace are filtered through the imagination and verbal skills of one of our brightest poets.
The new poems experiment with form, and address a life that is shrinking in specific ways: the poet is aging, the world is getting smaller, our post-9/11 freedoms are eroding, and our choices seem fewer and less attractive. Despite feelings of anger and loneliness, the narrator speaks to us in a personal, accessible, and often humorous voice.
The new poems experiment with form, and address a life that is shrinking in specific ways: the poet is aging, the world is getting smaller, our post-9/11 freedoms are eroding, and our choices seem fewer and less attractive. Despite feelings of anger and loneliness, the narrator speaks to us in a personal, accessible, and often humorous voice.
- GenresPoetry
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 27, 2018
Another wonderful collection of Meinke poems. My favorites were as follows: A Dream of Third Base, Epithalamion for Two Scientists, Inheritance, Maples and Orange Trees, P-Town ’04, Rocking Horse Winner, The Contracted World, Turkish Coffee.
June 7, 2023
1st time - Feb 2008
2nd time - Sept 2016: Meinke's craft is secure; the form of the poem and many places the sound make the poems feel highly crafted (but not overdone). On the other hand, they are not playful at all, meaning they feel harsh and bitter despite the fact that there is word play and sound play here. It doesn't shine out of the subject matter and tone.
The most interesting thing about these poems are Meinke's experimentation with spacing in the poems. I'm not sure I'm a fan; it seems gimmicky, at least it would if someone tried to copy it. It does make you think of spacing in words and line breaks, though as you are reading.
2nd time - Sept 2016: Meinke's craft is secure; the form of the poem and many places the sound make the poems feel highly crafted (but not overdone). On the other hand, they are not playful at all, meaning they feel harsh and bitter despite the fact that there is word play and sound play here. It doesn't shine out of the subject matter and tone.
The most interesting thing about these poems are Meinke's experimentation with spacing in the poems. I'm not sure I'm a fan; it seems gimmicky, at least it would if someone tried to copy it. It does make you think of spacing in words and line breaks, though as you are reading.
May 4, 2016
It being national poetry month, I decided to read at least one book of poetry. It occurred to me to have a look at our poet laureates, and I found Professor Meinke had been named by Governor Scott as Florida's Poet Laureate. Searching our catalog, I found a number of titles and landed this one in the end.
It has been a find for me, a real pleasure. A fair bit of his poems in this book address larger events that have occurred in my lifetime, but also small, everyday things that happen in life, and sometimes within a specific historical/place context (like Warsaw in the time of communism). The poet's use of language is playful at times, serious at times, but always excellently written. A man who loves his craft.
It has been a find for me, a real pleasure. A fair bit of his poems in this book address larger events that have occurred in my lifetime, but also small, everyday things that happen in life, and sometimes within a specific historical/place context (like Warsaw in the time of communism). The poet's use of language is playful at times, serious at times, but always excellently written. A man who loves his craft.
May 7, 2008
Meinke is a former professor of mine and a warm and generous writer. These poems celebrate friends and easygoing life in St. Pete, as well as (in the more recent work) anxiety about the war in Iraq.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews