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Petit Mal
Sexton's fourth collection of poetry.
- GenresPoetry
88 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
4 people want to read
About the author
John W. Sexton
30 books6 followersJohn William Sexton is an Irish poet, short-story writer, radio script-writer and children's novelist. He also writes under the pseudonyms of Sex W. Johnston and Jack Brae Curtingstall.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 11, 2014
John W. Sexton is probably my favorite Irish poet of the 21st century, and I was happy to have a chance to look at his fourth collection, Petit Mal.
Stretched over 86 pages of poems, Sexton uses a variety of styles, primarily free verse to explore any number of topics with a clean, penetrating insight (and frequently a good dose of humor) that I've often found lacking in American poetics.
I think he should be welcome company among Lao poets for the depth and breadth of his work.
He opens his collection with "My Granda as Lama Tensing," a touching exploration of life, death, our elders and sparrows around the world. The poem is short enough that it's difficult to excerpt without giving away the marvels of the lines he presents, but I think if you enjoy it, you'll enjoy the good majority of the poems that follow.
I often evaluate a manuscript by its thematic coherence balanced with its ability to surprise.
With Petit Mal, I think he presents an interesting puzzle as to how everything is connected to the notion of the petit mal, while also remaining independent as poems in their own right. The term of course, is most often used in connection with the phenomenon of absence seizures, when people just stare off into space for a few moments then come back. I consider this a great manuscript because it effectively presents a body of poems that provide a great glimpse of where we or others might have gone in the middle of such a seizure. Few of the poems in here overstay their welcome. He's in great control of his poems most of the time, with many lines and images capable of lingering with you if you read it at the right moment.
For me, the poems I found myself personally pondering the most were "Lao Tzu Notices Infinity For The First Time," "The Drowned Sailor," "Tea With Akhmatova's Cat," "Sixfaces and the Woman of Nothing," and "The Final Years of King Canute." You may well find many other interesting poems. But in any case, he closes the collection with "silence," which masterfully brings the manuscript full circle if you've been paying attention.
It's $15.00 in the states, but I think it's worth it, and it will be hard for many to find a copy here, which I find a deep pity. It has my highest recommendations.
Stretched over 86 pages of poems, Sexton uses a variety of styles, primarily free verse to explore any number of topics with a clean, penetrating insight (and frequently a good dose of humor) that I've often found lacking in American poetics.
I think he should be welcome company among Lao poets for the depth and breadth of his work.
He opens his collection with "My Granda as Lama Tensing," a touching exploration of life, death, our elders and sparrows around the world. The poem is short enough that it's difficult to excerpt without giving away the marvels of the lines he presents, but I think if you enjoy it, you'll enjoy the good majority of the poems that follow.
I often evaluate a manuscript by its thematic coherence balanced with its ability to surprise.
With Petit Mal, I think he presents an interesting puzzle as to how everything is connected to the notion of the petit mal, while also remaining independent as poems in their own right. The term of course, is most often used in connection with the phenomenon of absence seizures, when people just stare off into space for a few moments then come back. I consider this a great manuscript because it effectively presents a body of poems that provide a great glimpse of where we or others might have gone in the middle of such a seizure. Few of the poems in here overstay their welcome. He's in great control of his poems most of the time, with many lines and images capable of lingering with you if you read it at the right moment.
For me, the poems I found myself personally pondering the most were "Lao Tzu Notices Infinity For The First Time," "The Drowned Sailor," "Tea With Akhmatova's Cat," "Sixfaces and the Woman of Nothing," and "The Final Years of King Canute." You may well find many other interesting poems. But in any case, he closes the collection with "silence," which masterfully brings the manuscript full circle if you've been paying attention.
It's $15.00 in the states, but I think it's worth it, and it will be hard for many to find a copy here, which I find a deep pity. It has my highest recommendations.
Displaying 1 of 1 review