Possible Worlds

by Peter Porter

In this completely new collection of poems, Peter Porter brings his marvellous, incisive vision to bear on a characteristically wide range of subject matter, from memories of childhood to imaginings of literary utopia.

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 1989

About the author

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_P...

Reviews

[عدنان العبار · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Porter has written a modern masterpiece. The poems in this very short volume are original, fresh, inventive, innovative, and beautiful. I have savored the poems here and enjoyed them. I was introduced to him by his Australian prize. He is a poet of the highest caliber.

[Sarah Lada · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the least interesting book I've read so far this year. In the beginning, I made very strong attempts to finish reading the individual poems. When I got a quarter way through the book, I only read poems that captured my attention within the first few lines or stanzas. I was very disinterested and perhaps even lost with Porter's language and content. My distaste for this book may be due to the linguistic barrier between American English and Australian English. But okay, okay. There was a poem that contained a few lines I enjoyed. In the poem "Die-Back": "How many of you have ever paused/to think of what you owe the suffering artists/of the world? Little by little, as acid eats a plate,/they use up chances and map at least the edges/of the possible, the unendurable. If I know someone/has tamed a sponge with a sonnet/I will was my face today; if my fright at moonlight/has darkened a sestina I might escape insomnia."

[Astir · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nature poetry meets biography to romp around in obscure literary allusions and to explore Lofty Themes and/or Queensland. Pack a dictionary and an encyclopaedia to navigate this esoteric onanism of vocabulary.