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Rain
"Woodward seeks news rather desperately from outer space-and finds it in that huge vacancy, the human heart."-Jorie Graham
Short, energetic, interlinked poems describe the daily and sometimes surprisingly routine nature of grief. Relying on youthful sincerity rather than nostalgic rumination, this 2005 Verse Prize winner is a sweet, sharp, and honest elegy.
Short, energetic, interlinked poems describe the daily and sometimes surprisingly routine nature of grief. Relying on youthful sincerity rather than nostalgic rumination, this 2005 Verse Prize winner is a sweet, sharp, and honest elegy.
- GenresPoetry
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2006
30 people want to read
About the author
Jon Woodward
7 books4 followersJon Woodward can be found (to a degree) at jonwoodward.net.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 29, 2023
Lack of punctuations and titles lead to frequent syntactical confusion, yet it remains comprehensible.
Major hit or miss when it comes to the various poems.
3/5
Major hit or miss when it comes to the various poems.
3/5
February 25, 2016
Let me say something going in to this review that affected my enjoyment/score quite a bit: I loathe reading any writing without punctuation. That's on me, that's a personal hang-up... But it is a big pet peeve for me. So bear in mind that if that is not a stumbling block for you, your enjoyment of this collection will most likely be much higher than mine.
Do you ever finish a book and then come on to Goodreads to leave a review and see what others have written about the same book and feel (for lack of a better term) stupid?
I didn't glean all of the complex layers of meaning from this collection that others did at all. I would say that 90% of that comes from my struggling through the lack of punctuation, sadly enough. I just didn't feel like I had a grasp of what the poet was trying to say, though. Most of the time, I was bewildered far more than excited. It was only the last section of the book where I started to feel my way along these walls of poetry and see where I felt he was going... (It probably goes without saying that this is my favorite section of the book.)
I probably owe this collection a second chance at some point, but right now my verdict is that it is a style that just isn't for me.
Do you ever finish a book and then come on to Goodreads to leave a review and see what others have written about the same book and feel (for lack of a better term) stupid?
I didn't glean all of the complex layers of meaning from this collection that others did at all. I would say that 90% of that comes from my struggling through the lack of punctuation, sadly enough. I just didn't feel like I had a grasp of what the poet was trying to say, though. Most of the time, I was bewildered far more than excited. It was only the last section of the book where I started to feel my way along these walls of poetry and see where I felt he was going... (It probably goes without saying that this is my favorite section of the book.)
I probably owe this collection a second chance at some point, but right now my verdict is that it is a style that just isn't for me.
February 21, 2008
A book of poems in a virtually uniform form--3 stanzas of five lines each, no punctuation, severe enjambment resulting in syntactical fuzzyness.
For reasons I can't/won't fully express here, this book appealed to me. Perhaps I'm a sucker for beautiful changes, a dexterity in shifting tonal registers and image sets--one thing suddenly becoming another. And while there is an element of arbitrariness in some of the objects chosen for change, it the consistency/insistency of this movement that make it's own kind of more elegant argument. Which is...I dunno...I dunno...something about the object & the structure which it occupies?
Either way, I tend to like the ambition/attitude of books put out by WAVE press but find myself disappointed by the execution of the work--but things seem to strike a firmer balance here.
For reasons I can't/won't fully express here, this book appealed to me. Perhaps I'm a sucker for beautiful changes, a dexterity in shifting tonal registers and image sets--one thing suddenly becoming another. And while there is an element of arbitrariness in some of the objects chosen for change, it the consistency/insistency of this movement that make it's own kind of more elegant argument. Which is...I dunno...I dunno...something about the object & the structure which it occupies?
Either way, I tend to like the ambition/attitude of books put out by WAVE press but find myself disappointed by the execution of the work--but things seem to strike a firmer balance here.
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June 3, 2023Wasn’t my fav poetry book I read but I liked how he wrote poems of 5 words per stanza and there are 5 lines in every stanza. 3 stanzas total per page which is part of the project we discussed in class
May 30, 2025
not bad, not life changing
generative project has something to do with 5 lines with 5 words?
generative project has something to do with 5 lines with 5 words?
May 11, 2010
"this weather's the actual God / or at least it's that / honest moment before the concert / when the orchestra tunes itself / although much longer in duration"
an excerpt from, "Rain"
an excerpt from, "Rain"
February 12, 2014
Five word line form consistent through book- occasionally works wonders and feels natural, frequently feels tortured. Grief and death are major themes.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews