Against Distance

by Peter Makuck

Poetry that illuminates nature's weather and the weather of the human spirit.

Genres: Poetry

75 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Peter Makuck is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at East Carolina University. He is the author of Long Lens: New and Selected Poems and two collections of short stories, Breaking and Entering and Costly Habits. His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in the Georgia Review, Hudson Review, Poetry, Sewanee Review, the Nation, and Gettysburg Review.

Reviews

[Doug]

This collection had no life, no edge. The poems just lay there on the page, largely one dimensional, no natural surprises or irony. Many of the poems were long, flat descriptions, with a forced surprise in the final lines. We want surprise endings, but they can't be forced. They have to grow out of the setup.

Here is a sample of a flat description (37):

Woodsmoke

Sometimes the sight of it
curling blue
from brick chimney
on a rusty tin roof

or the scent of it
drifting on a cold day
puts an edge on things,
reminds me

we were almost poor
forked creatures
those frosty mornings,
our country home no

fairytale cottage....

And so on.