Radiance: Poems

by Barbara Crooker

Barbara Crooker’s Radiance is a book bursting with abundance and with joy. Crooker’s lyrics, ranging in tone from hushed to exuberant, catch the richness and grace of the world in their varied lines about art, about nature, and about experience.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2005

About the author

Barbara Crooker's books are Radiance, which won the 2005 Word Press First Book competition and was a finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize; Line Dance, (Word Press 2008), which won the 2009 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence; and More (C & R Press, 2010). "

Reviews

[Annagrace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect words for the first book of the first month of this fresh year.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to read this book after encountering one or two of Crookers poems (In the Middle was one) that I liked enough to want to get to know her body of work better.

There are a lot of things that stand out about this collection, but one of my favorites is the crispness of language - these poems are rich with wonderful words that you don't hear much in daily conversation, small treasures like: susurrus, cerise, tremolo, grackles, sedges, escarpment, awn, voluptuaries. She is beautifully precise, which lends each poem a sense of freshness.

There are some themes that recur throughout her work, some of which I enjoy a bit more than others. When she writes about the beauty of the natural world, there are moments when, as a nature poet, her work can stand comparison to Mary Oliver or Maggie Anderson. Her poems about aging are some of the best on that theme I've ever encountered, and her pieces about her son's autism are also finely done.

But the abundance of pieces written in response to famous paintings and works of art tended to leave me a bit cold. I'm not opposed to ekphrasis in general, but reading a poem that is written in specific response to a work of art without also being able to see the artwork, I often feel like captures only half of a particular experience. And it feels like there is an abundance of those types of poems included in this book. There are also a few poems that feel a bit more like exercises - the one using the book titles from the Sunday Times, for example - than like stand alone poems. These pieces all share a certain restraint that contrasts greatly with the emotional presence in some of Crooker's best poems.

In her best work, she is as lovely as she is lively - and she writes with a fearlessness that seems very rare these days. She doesn't distance herself from emotion, she's not ironic, she doesn't veer away from meaningful mentions of religion or genuine sentiment out of a fear of coming off too much like a greeting card. It's the best kind of poetry collection, really, one that still leaves you wanting to read more.

[Ann Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a review of this book for Triplopia.org, read at my link text

Lovely book.

[Jimmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't find a poem that stood out for further reading.