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How Things Are
Richardson, James
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
4 people want to read
About the author
James Richardson
312 books46 followersThis is the disambiguation page for otherwise unseparated authors publishing as James Richardson.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 8, 2010
I think James Richardson may be entering the pantheon of my favorite poets. I absolutely loved Vectors, so I thought I would pick up another of his collections - and I am absolutely not disappointed in the least.
In a way, this is the complete opposite of Vectors. While that collection was made up entirely of very short verse, this is a collection of much longer works (The first poem is 22 pages long). Typically, I am a bit put off by longer poetry - probably due to my (lack of an) attention span as much as any other reason. With this collection, though, I was hooked. The opening poem - "How Things Are: A Suite for Lucretians" had me from the opening lines and never let go. It is a fantastic meditation on language, permanence, seperate-ness, the self... all of the issues that I like to see tackled - and he does it with such a fresh, original voice.
The rest of the collection is also strong, but that first poem just blew me away. It is easily worth the price of admission.
In a way, this is the complete opposite of Vectors. While that collection was made up entirely of very short verse, this is a collection of much longer works (The first poem is 22 pages long). Typically, I am a bit put off by longer poetry - probably due to my (lack of an) attention span as much as any other reason. With this collection, though, I was hooked. The opening poem - "How Things Are: A Suite for Lucretians" had me from the opening lines and never let go. It is a fantastic meditation on language, permanence, seperate-ness, the self... all of the issues that I like to see tackled - and he does it with such a fresh, original voice.
The rest of the collection is also strong, but that first poem just blew me away. It is easily worth the price of admission.
Displaying 1 of 1 review