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Forgiveness Parade
In Jeffrey McDaniel's second book, it is hard to separate the humor from the pain. Both qualities are omnipresent whether he's tackling dysfunctional family memories in 'The Most Awful Lullaby', or broken-hearted romance in poems like 'Another Long Day in the Office of Dreams'.
80 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1998
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About the author
Jeffrey McDaniel
15 books168 followersHe is the recipient of a creative writing fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His writing has been included in Ploughshares, The Best American Poetry 1994, and The New Young American Poets, as well as on the National Endowment for the Arts website.
Although McDaniel has not performed in a poetry slam in over 10 years, he has made spoken word appearances at Lollapalooza, the Moscow Writers Union, and the Globe in Prague, as well as numerous poetry slams across the United States in the early-to-mid '90s.
A compilation of selected poems, Katostrophenkunde, was translated into German by Ron Winkler and published in 2006.
He teaches creative writing and is a faculty advisor at Sarah Lawrence College.
Although McDaniel has not performed in a poetry slam in over 10 years, he has made spoken word appearances at Lollapalooza, the Moscow Writers Union, and the Globe in Prague, as well as numerous poetry slams across the United States in the early-to-mid '90s.
A compilation of selected poems, Katostrophenkunde, was translated into German by Ron Winkler and published in 2006.
He teaches creative writing and is a faculty advisor at Sarah Lawrence College.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
March 29, 2019
"We didn't deny the obvious,
but we didn't entirely accept it either" (J. McDaniel)
Šis ir autors, kurš ir uzrakstījis vienu no maniem visu laiku mīļākajiem dzejoļiem "The Quiet World". Tik skaists likās, ka es to pat atdzejoju latviski: http://pl-inga.blogspot.com/2019/01/k.... Un noteikti iztulkošu no viņa dzejoļiem vēl kaut ko.
Viņa dzeja pārsteidz. Ar maigumu, skarbumu, patiesumu.
but we didn't entirely accept it either" (J. McDaniel)
Šis ir autors, kurš ir uzrakstījis vienu no maniem visu laiku mīļākajiem dzejoļiem "The Quiet World". Tik skaists likās, ka es to pat atdzejoju latviski: http://pl-inga.blogspot.com/2019/01/k.... Un noteikti iztulkošu no viņa dzejoļiem vēl kaut ko.
Viņa dzeja pārsteidz. Ar maigumu, skarbumu, patiesumu.
August 24, 2010
This book contains the poem "The Quiet World." Look it up. It's brilliant. Easily my favorite poem of any I've ever read.
January 4, 2009
This book has been rated highly by many so some justification is in order here. I picked this up having read a few McDaniel poems online, such as The Scars of Utopia and The Quiet World . Both are wonderful poems, original and thought-provoking. The latter in particular, with its context established so well in the commentary accompanying the poem, makes a convincing argument for the idea that even democratically elected governments can subjugate their peoples through measures designed with seemingly noble intentions - the rationing of words is merely the government's way of promoting greater social interaction - an idea that is not very far-fetched.
This was promising stuff, so I had great hopes for this book, which, sadly, did not last long. For starters, The Quiet World is included in this collection, in presumably its original form, which has a rather unwelcome twist. The first stanza here reads
In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided to allot
each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.
The additional third line is not just in contradiction to the essence of the rest of poem, it is unnecessary. To be sure, administrations continually consider measures that curtail the rights to free speech and individual liberties and which justly ought to be criticized, but to attack the programs of positive discrimination towards the physically, socially or economically disadvantaged that have been instituted by modern governments is nothing short of taking a cheap shot; it is in the seeking of the greatest good of the greatest number that governments have brought about holocausts, not in attempting to promote social justice. Without the added line, the point was well made; with it, the message becomes inconsistent. This may seem like a lot of fuss over a single sentence, were it not that it is symptomatic of much that is disappointing with elements of contemporary poetry and a lot of postmodern art in general- it is no longer enough to be critical of the establishment to be deemed provocative, instead a young poet has to distinguish himself by encroaching on territory that traditionally would have been regarded with far greater sensitivity. Under the guise of delivering complexity of meaning, shades of grey are needlessly introduced in which minority groups, women, the elderly, gays, all are fair game. Our new anti-establishment thinkers crave a publicly-funded tenured position, while they decry public policy. Thus is the multiplicity of interpretations that art offers subverted into a single, intolerant message; conservative is now radical, right is the new left. Which is of course, rather disheartening.
As for the rest of the collection, although McDaniel's skill in his craft means that when he gets it right, the effect is clever ("Your legs are longer than a prisoner's/last night on death row"), if there is a broader subtext to any of the poems, it is not immediately apparent. Within most poems there is very little variation in his basic poetic device of constructing couplets with occasional tie-ins, often with provocative imagery, and after a while the overuse of the device starts to jar. McDaniel is however still young- was more so when this collection was published- and his talent is obvious enough to expect a lot of good work in the future.
This was promising stuff, so I had great hopes for this book, which, sadly, did not last long. For starters, The Quiet World is included in this collection, in presumably its original form, which has a rather unwelcome twist. The first stanza here reads
In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided to allot
each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.
The additional third line is not just in contradiction to the essence of the rest of poem, it is unnecessary. To be sure, administrations continually consider measures that curtail the rights to free speech and individual liberties and which justly ought to be criticized, but to attack the programs of positive discrimination towards the physically, socially or economically disadvantaged that have been instituted by modern governments is nothing short of taking a cheap shot; it is in the seeking of the greatest good of the greatest number that governments have brought about holocausts, not in attempting to promote social justice. Without the added line, the point was well made; with it, the message becomes inconsistent. This may seem like a lot of fuss over a single sentence, were it not that it is symptomatic of much that is disappointing with elements of contemporary poetry and a lot of postmodern art in general- it is no longer enough to be critical of the establishment to be deemed provocative, instead a young poet has to distinguish himself by encroaching on territory that traditionally would have been regarded with far greater sensitivity. Under the guise of delivering complexity of meaning, shades of grey are needlessly introduced in which minority groups, women, the elderly, gays, all are fair game. Our new anti-establishment thinkers crave a publicly-funded tenured position, while they decry public policy. Thus is the multiplicity of interpretations that art offers subverted into a single, intolerant message; conservative is now radical, right is the new left. Which is of course, rather disheartening.
As for the rest of the collection, although McDaniel's skill in his craft means that when he gets it right, the effect is clever ("Your legs are longer than a prisoner's/last night on death row"), if there is a broader subtext to any of the poems, it is not immediately apparent. Within most poems there is very little variation in his basic poetic device of constructing couplets with occasional tie-ins, often with provocative imagery, and after a while the overuse of the device starts to jar. McDaniel is however still young- was more so when this collection was published- and his talent is obvious enough to expect a lot of good work in the future.
March 24, 2024
This is often very clever, and the love or love/romance/sex-adjacent poems are very good. I highlighted many fun and/or gorgeous lines and re-read many of these poems.
I didn't always follow the metaphors, though. Perhaps most importantly for overall reading experience/how "clever" all of the poems are/could be: the metaphors involving/references to populations (e.g., "retarded girl," blind people, "mutes") didn't do the poems any good, and were just distracting (for me, the only exception was when "the Armenians" are referenced as a comparison for something being blatantly ignored that should really not be ignored; this reference especially made sense to me given the collection's publication in the '90s).
So, overall, this kind of gets in its own way. Also overall, though, I liked enough of these poems so much that I'll definitely read another collection by this poet (hoping that some of the metaphors/references change).
I didn't always follow the metaphors, though. Perhaps most importantly for overall reading experience/how "clever" all of the poems are/could be: the metaphors involving/references to populations (e.g., "retarded girl," blind people, "mutes") didn't do the poems any good, and were just distracting (for me, the only exception was when "the Armenians" are referenced as a comparison for something being blatantly ignored that should really not be ignored; this reference especially made sense to me given the collection's publication in the '90s).
So, overall, this kind of gets in its own way. Also overall, though, I liked enough of these poems so much that I'll definitely read another collection by this poet (hoping that some of the metaphors/references change).
January 8, 2022
5/5 titles! Parts one and two are easily 5/5 but he briefly lost momentum in part 3 and only kind of pulls it together again in part 4. McDaniel does really well with wordplay and absurd imagery and turning cliches on their head. Idk. I haven't read it in a while but I liked it a lot. My favorite poems were "Survivor's Glee" and "Lineage" and "Logic in the House of Sawed-off Telescopes" and "Buying Crack at 3:00 A.M." and "Siamese Opposites" and "Stationary Earth." Wow, those were a lot of favorites. I guess I must really like this book. McDaniel is at his best when he's talking about his shitty childhood.
November 9, 2019
The fourth book I've read by McDaniel and easily my favorite. "The Quiet World", "Uncle Eggplant", "Where Babies Come From", and "Hunting for Cherubs" are all perfect/near perfect poems. What a collection.
May 22, 2021
I don’t wish I was in your arms
I just wish I was pedaling a bicycle
towards your arms
The Forgiveness Parade is all my adult feelings when riding my bike at 3am in the city where I wasted my youth. An album from Lame-O Records you listen to drunk and with the lights off. Spilled black coffee after everything hurts in a way that you kinda chuckle. A cancelled party forever-membership. That one-night stand in loop you got so dizzy that you misread your boredom as love. A post-adolescent howl at after-concerts parties & that noise winter trees make when letting go. All the man-boy’s unsaid promises like tiny light bulbs: a constellation of doomed lovers, alcohol and dopamine, and how it aaall bursts into the magnificence of our childhood’s broken toys.
My own soundtrack:
McDaniel was 30 (my age) when he released this 90's slow-core nostalgia: Never Promise Someone a Poem, Great Humans, Fairy Tale in Reverse and so on. Isn't this sophomore collection of poems some sort of check control: do I still have that awkward way to smile at sadness and death? And his writing unapologetically flows from suicide:: "and your heart: a time bomb that took twenty-six years to explode" to those endless nights when we wander around the city pretending we don't know what are we exactly looking for.
When the sun lifted,
like a fist punching light into our heads,
we were more than just broke, we were broken
I just wish I was pedaling a bicycle
towards your arms
The Forgiveness Parade is all my adult feelings when riding my bike at 3am in the city where I wasted my youth. An album from Lame-O Records you listen to drunk and with the lights off. Spilled black coffee after everything hurts in a way that you kinda chuckle. A cancelled party forever-membership. That one-night stand in loop you got so dizzy that you misread your boredom as love. A post-adolescent howl at after-concerts parties & that noise winter trees make when letting go. All the man-boy’s unsaid promises like tiny light bulbs: a constellation of doomed lovers, alcohol and dopamine, and how it aaall bursts into the magnificence of our childhood’s broken toys.
My own soundtrack:
The Jerk
The Secret
Letter to the woman who stopped writing me back
The Quiet World
Caracas
Orbited by Kisses
McDaniel was 30 (my age) when he released this 90's slow-core nostalgia: Never Promise Someone a Poem, Great Humans, Fairy Tale in Reverse and so on. Isn't this sophomore collection of poems some sort of check control: do I still have that awkward way to smile at sadness and death? And his writing unapologetically flows from suicide:: "and your heart: a time bomb that took twenty-six years to explode" to those endless nights when we wander around the city pretending we don't know what are we exactly looking for.
When the sun lifted,
like a fist punching light into our heads,
we were more than just broke, we were broken
February 26, 2017
Not as good as "Splinter Factory" but very funny and worth the read.
Favorites:
-Survivor's Gate
-Uncle Eggplant
-Logic in the house of Sawed-Off Telescopes
-Opposites Attack
-Pornograpgy For Eunuchs
-Winter Landscape with Manatee
Favorites:
-Survivor's Gate
-Uncle Eggplant
-Logic in the house of Sawed-Off Telescopes
-Opposites Attack
-Pornograpgy For Eunuchs
-Winter Landscape with Manatee
October 19, 2021
This collection of poems didn't connect with me. Although I adore Jeffrey McDaniel's poem The Quiet World (it's actually the poem that got me into poetry and creative writing back in college), I disliked almost every other poem in this collection.
I chose to read this collection based on my enjoyment of The Quiet World; if you're anything like me and only know one or two of his works, I might recommend reading some others online before choosing to buy the Forgiveness Parade.
I chose to read this collection based on my enjoyment of The Quiet World; if you're anything like me and only know one or two of his works, I might recommend reading some others online before choosing to buy the Forgiveness Parade.
June 6, 2021
Before picking this up, I’d loved every Jeffrey McDaniels poem I’d read – Archipelago of Kisses, The Quiet World, Boner Etiquette, Letter To The Woman Who Stopped Writing Me Back. Whenever someone tells me that they don’t normally like poetry, he’s usually one of my go-to suggestions – not everyone will necessarily connect with him, but his poetry is so delightfully different from what people normally mean when they say they don’t “get” poetry. So honestly, I was a little disappointed by this collection.
There’s a lot of really fun word play, but I was sometimes left wondering whether it was cleverness over substance. At his worst, his poems sound like a thrown-together assemblage of self-congratulatorily witty phrases, loose and self-indulgent.
But oh, it is clever, the images clear and sharp and striking. “Our values unraveling like mummies in a mosh pit” “I carried white lies so far they changed/colors. I held tantrums in my pocket/a long time, before I actually threw them.”
I love him most when he sticks to one conceit per poem and just sees it through: Stationary Earth, The Farmer. I think The Quiet World is such a favourite because it’s one of the few poems where he doesn’t try to do too much, where the cleverness doesn’t obfuscate the emotional heart.
There’s a lot of really fun word play, but I was sometimes left wondering whether it was cleverness over substance. At his worst, his poems sound like a thrown-together assemblage of self-congratulatorily witty phrases, loose and self-indulgent.
But oh, it is clever, the images clear and sharp and striking. “Our values unraveling like mummies in a mosh pit” “I carried white lies so far they changed/colors. I held tantrums in my pocket/a long time, before I actually threw them.”
I love him most when he sticks to one conceit per poem and just sees it through: Stationary Earth, The Farmer. I think The Quiet World is such a favourite because it’s one of the few poems where he doesn’t try to do too much, where the cleverness doesn’t obfuscate the emotional heart.
June 16, 2019
The Quiet World is one of my favourite poems. So is The Archipelago of Kisses. So I'm sad that this collection left me underwhelmed in general, and overwhelmed with 'bad family therapy confessional box' vibes. 'Another Long Night in the Office of Dreams' is great. The on-purpose awfulness of 'The Jerk' could be Tinder's national anthem.
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fondue:
Your eyes
are so green, one of your parents must be
part traffic light.
It's definitely more me than the poems because I hate modern sloppiness and modern confessionality. I guess I like the first two poems because they exhibit a measure of control and technique and distance missing from the others.
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fondue:
Your eyes
are so green, one of your parents must be
part traffic light.
It's definitely more me than the poems because I hate modern sloppiness and modern confessionality. I guess I like the first two poems because they exhibit a measure of control and technique and distance missing from the others.
January 6, 2021
This is Jeffrey's second book and it has been a joy to read it and Alibi School after reading his later work to see where he came from and where he has expanded to. I recommend reading his three last books before you decide on whether or not he is your taste. This and Alibi are not as awe inducing, but still pretty great nonetheless.
November 29, 2023
I loved The Quiet World and read this because of it. That said, I absolutely despised The Jerk. I understand that it is satirical, but it was still so repulsive I should be compensated for my wasted time and energy. I could not read the rest of that section with a clear mind knowing what he was capable of writing about women.
May 22, 2018
This is my colleague at works favorite book of poems. I liked it. They were often grotesque, usually poignant, and always weird.
March 20, 2022
Came for The Quiet World, found a few more interesting ones :)
March 28, 2022
As a fresh wind in the gloomy humid summer.
February 7, 2023
"The Quiet World" that's all
April 9, 2011
Interesting to see other themes and topics (eg family and childhood) that are rarely ever part of his more popular pieces that have been making rounds on the Internet. While obviously talented—McDaniel is a wordsmith!—there is a lack of thematic unity and cohesion that would tie these poems together as a collection. On their own, there are a lot of poems that are beautiful. Taken together, it represents a somewhat weak collection that have beautifully written poems that have very little to do with one another. The author's intent is sometimes lost on me. This is my first McDaniel collection, and this was published in 1998, so perhaps the next books he has released may have already addressed these issues.
February 9, 2008
Recurring images. etc. include: guns, masturbation, the moon, plumbers, heels, rats, blood, alcohol, uncles, funerals, drugs, love, hurricanes, scars, sleeping, thighs, sky, trains, paintbrushes, women hearts, heads ears.
June 29, 2008
Though some of the professors in my MFA program vehemently disagreed with me, poetry can be funny and well written. Jeffrey McDaniel is a master of irony, quiet self-deprecation, and twisting our expectations of everyday objects.
August 1, 2011
An unbelievable poet with a voice that represents everything it means to be young, contemporary, and reckless. It has been a long time since I was this impressed by a poet. The attitude behind his work is tangible and turns him into this renegade poet. Everyone loves a bad boy...
September 27, 2011
Fantastic collection of poetry, one of my favorites of all time. It looks through a cracked lens and dysfunctional families and gritty urban life. The language is wonderfully weird without being opaque in the way some modern poetry can be. I highly recommend it.
January 28, 2015
This book is an experience. Jeffrey McDaniel has achieved nothing short of brilliance with The Forgiveness Parade, beautifully stringing words together into something capable of arousing every one of your senses, one at a time. I won't be forgetting this one for a while. 5/5
January 4, 2011
Even if you're not a fan of poetry, please read these.
November 7, 2012
This is poetry for those of us who like the flavour of never-was.
January 25, 2013
sometimes he relies too much on his weirdass imagery but mostly it is good
between 3&4
between 3&4
May 29, 2014
Breathtaking ... the kind where you try to breathe while laughing and crying at the same time.
August 22, 2024
Interesting and slightly bizarre poems - I really enjoyed reading, though not everything made a lot of sense to me.
March 19, 2022
Took my breath away. Absolutely magical 💝
August 14, 2007
Sometimes it's laugh-out-loud funny. Other times, not so much.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews