Some Things Words Can Do [Includes A History of Small Life on a Windy Planet, orig. pub. in 1993] by Collins, Martha (1998) Paperback

by Martha Collins

Excellent Book

Genres: Poetry

Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Born in Nebraska and raised in Iowa, Martha Collins was educated at Stanford University and the University of Iowa. She founded the creative writing program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and for ten years served as Pauline Delaney Professor of creative writing at Oberlin College. She served as Distinguished Visiting Writer at Cornell University in 2010, and currently teaches (and is available for) short-term workshops. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Courtney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I first read Martha Collins' poetry off a website that was sampling poems from her then-unpublished book White Papers. Everything was lovely and rhetorical and the words mattered. The rhythm was the heart of it. She does what she calls "dictionary work" where she connects alliterative words that all mean the same thing or point in the same direction. It reminded me of Gertrude Stein, except the poetry made sense. It was the kind of poetry that stuck with you. That said, I was a little disappointed with this book. It had moments, but it also missed moments, big sequences of moments.

From "Floor Study"
Why is wrong
our right these days

[Mills College Library]

811.54 C7127s 1998