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Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds
In James Matthew Wilson’s fourth full-length collection of poems, the writer joins the great saint and theologian Thomas Aquinas to pause before “the thought of earthly sorrows” and to pray for “such a world that had so much to say.”
These poems stand in wonder before the tumult and beauty of created things and the capacity of the soul to rise above it. We move from encounters with the world as revelation, mystery, and promise, to great scenes of sin and fracture such as the bombing of Dresden, the execution of the Roman philosopher Cicero, and scandals in the Church. The volume begins with the prospects for an unborn child soon to enter our stormy world and concludes with a “Farewell” to the place, home, and setting of many of these poems.
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds is a story and pilgrimage through the troubles of our age and beyond them to the reason for our hope, “for all things turn about the love of God.”
These poems stand in wonder before the tumult and beauty of created things and the capacity of the soul to rise above it. We move from encounters with the world as revelation, mystery, and promise, to great scenes of sin and fracture such as the bombing of Dresden, the execution of the Roman philosopher Cicero, and scandals in the Church. The volume begins with the prospects for an unborn child soon to enter our stormy world and concludes with a “Farewell” to the place, home, and setting of many of these poems.
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds is a story and pilgrimage through the troubles of our age and beyond them to the reason for our hope, “for all things turn about the love of God.”
- GenresPoetry
128 pages, Hardcover
Published April 29, 2024
About the author
James Matthew Wilson
21 books51 followersJames Matthew Wilson is Professor of Humanities and the Founding Director of the Master of Fine Arts program in Creative Writing , at the University of Saint Thomas, Houston. An award-winning scholar of philosophical-theology and literature, he has authored dozens of essays, articles, and reviews on all manner of subjects secular and divine, and especially on those where we see the two in their intrinsic relation, as truth, goodness, beauty, and being disclose themselves in art and culture, in the political and intellectual life, in our quest for self knowledge and the contemplation of God. His scholarly work especially focuses on the meeting of aesthetic and ontological form, where the craftsmanship of art-work discloses the truth about being.
Wilson is a poet and critic of contemporary poetry, whose work appears regularly in such magazines and journals as First Things, The Wall Street Journal, The Hudson Review, Modern Age, The New Criterion, Dappled Things, Measure, The Weekly Standard, Front Porch Republic, The Raintown Review, National Review, and The American Conservative.
He has published ten books, including six books and chapbooks of poetry. Among his volumes are: The Vision of the Soul: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in the Western Tradition (CUA, 2017); the major critical study, The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking (Wiseblood, 2015); and a monograph, The Catholic Imagination in Modern American Poetry (both Wiseblood Books, 2014). His most recent books are The Strangeness of the Good (Angelico, 2020) and the poetic sequence, The River of the Immaculate Conception (Wiseblood, 2019).
Wilson serves as Poetry Editor of Modern Age magazine, series editor of Colosseum Books, of the Franciscan University at Steubenville Press, and as director of the Colosseum Institute for writers. He also serves on the boards of several learned journals and societies.
Twice, Wilson has been awarded the Lionel Basney Award by the Conference for Christianity and Literature; he has been a runner up for both the Foley Prize for Poetry by America magazine and the Jacques Maritain Essay Prize by Dappled Things magazine. The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture awarded him the 2017 Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the largest award of its kind. Wilson's The Strangeness of the Good won the Catholic Media Awards prize for poetry in 2021.
Wilson was educated at the University of Michigan (B.A.), the University of Massachusetts (M.A.), and the University of Notre Dame (M.F.A., Ph.D.), where he subsequently held a Sorin Research Fellowship. Wilson joined the University of Saint Thomas, Houston, in 2021, when he co-founded the Master of Fine Arts program.
Wilson is a poet and critic of contemporary poetry, whose work appears regularly in such magazines and journals as First Things, The Wall Street Journal, The Hudson Review, Modern Age, The New Criterion, Dappled Things, Measure, The Weekly Standard, Front Porch Republic, The Raintown Review, National Review, and The American Conservative.
He has published ten books, including six books and chapbooks of poetry. Among his volumes are: The Vision of the Soul: Truth, Goodness, and Beauty in the Western Tradition (CUA, 2017); the major critical study, The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking (Wiseblood, 2015); and a monograph, The Catholic Imagination in Modern American Poetry (both Wiseblood Books, 2014). His most recent books are The Strangeness of the Good (Angelico, 2020) and the poetic sequence, The River of the Immaculate Conception (Wiseblood, 2019).
Wilson serves as Poetry Editor of Modern Age magazine, series editor of Colosseum Books, of the Franciscan University at Steubenville Press, and as director of the Colosseum Institute for writers. He also serves on the boards of several learned journals and societies.
Twice, Wilson has been awarded the Lionel Basney Award by the Conference for Christianity and Literature; he has been a runner up for both the Foley Prize for Poetry by America magazine and the Jacques Maritain Essay Prize by Dappled Things magazine. The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture awarded him the 2017 Hiett Prize in the Humanities, the largest award of its kind. Wilson's The Strangeness of the Good won the Catholic Media Awards prize for poetry in 2021.
Wilson was educated at the University of Michigan (B.A.), the University of Massachusetts (M.A.), and the University of Notre Dame (M.F.A., Ph.D.), where he subsequently held a Sorin Research Fellowship. Wilson joined the University of Saint Thomas, Houston, in 2021, when he co-founded the Master of Fine Arts program.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 10, 2024
I would like to read more poetry than I do, but I rarely find poetry collections that I read consistently or am able to finish. But this collection I kept picking up, kept marking individual poems I loved and want to return to, and was short enough I read it all in a few days.
October 23, 2024
Wilson has a real knack for meter and verse, so his poems have a lovely flowing quality to them. Like prayers.
From "The Darkness Coming"
All men are brought up short
Before a door of stone;
The simple and the wise
Agree we die alone.
But wisdom is a bird
That rides on empty air,
As blind to what shall come
As what dark wounds we bear.
It will not comfort you.
So, do not comfort me,
As I stare through the dark
Yet do not cease to be.
From "The Darkness Coming"
All men are brought up short
Before a door of stone;
The simple and the wise
Agree we die alone.
But wisdom is a bird
That rides on empty air,
As blind to what shall come
As what dark wounds we bear.
It will not comfort you.
So, do not comfort me,
As I stare through the dark
Yet do not cease to be.
April 29, 2025
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds is a collection of poems about the dread of life in a fallen world – lightened, sometimes, and in its darkness witnessing of light, but most often dreadful.
I had a good time with this book.
The poems are heavy, but I think in mostly helpful ways. Paul J. Pastor's Bower Lodge collection came to mind as I read – where Bower Lodge is fascinated by processes of decay that are actually/also renewal in disguise, Saint Thomas dwells on how the things that we think of as renewal are actually subject to decay and ultimate failure, whether nature or memory or childhood. When the light breaks through, it's because a little bit of Heaven has made itself known.
The other reference I thought of as I read was Malcolm Guite. Like much of Guite's work, Saint Thomas embraces structure and rhyme, finding delightful turns within the bounds of traditional forms.
I'm glad I read this – it has helped me put words to some of the dread I have found haunt adulthood, and that's helpful.
An excerpt:
—
Such is the strangeness of most beauty’s birth.
Amid the battered armor on the field,
Some victor paints a crest upon his shield
And vows to treat the weak as things of worth.
A fixed stare on the crumbling deep of blackest earth
Will find concealed within that sight
The thought of everlasting light.
The open wound shows how it may be healed.
from "Vanished Fire"
Thanks to the publisher for the NetGalley ARC.
I had a good time with this book.
The poems are heavy, but I think in mostly helpful ways. Paul J. Pastor's Bower Lodge collection came to mind as I read – where Bower Lodge is fascinated by processes of decay that are actually/also renewal in disguise, Saint Thomas dwells on how the things that we think of as renewal are actually subject to decay and ultimate failure, whether nature or memory or childhood. When the light breaks through, it's because a little bit of Heaven has made itself known.
The other reference I thought of as I read was Malcolm Guite. Like much of Guite's work, Saint Thomas embraces structure and rhyme, finding delightful turns within the bounds of traditional forms.
I'm glad I read this – it has helped me put words to some of the dread I have found haunt adulthood, and that's helpful.
An excerpt:
—
Such is the strangeness of most beauty’s birth.
Amid the battered armor on the field,
Some victor paints a crest upon his shield
And vows to treat the weak as things of worth.
A fixed stare on the crumbling deep of blackest earth
Will find concealed within that sight
The thought of everlasting light.
The open wound shows how it may be healed.
from "Vanished Fire"
Thanks to the publisher for the NetGalley ARC.
June 11, 2025
As a former English major, I'm embarrassed to count how many poetry collections I've read. Sure I've read quite a few poems over the years for classes, but how often do I read a full collection of poems by one author? Rarely. I've been meaning to read one of A.E. Stallings' collections for over a year now and have made no progress in that direction. (One day!)
The main reason I even picked up this book in the first place was that it was literally handed to me for free at the Notre Dame Catholic Imagination/Ethics Conference. And after letting it sit on my shelf for four months, I finally decided to pick it up. I expected it to be alright, but it was much better than alright--I really enjoyed how James Matthew Wilson uses language. Per usual, I encountered some poems which I could not understand and was frustrated by that, but I think I need to keep pushing myself to read those frustrating poems, and ideally, to sit with them for a bit.
Oh, and did I mention that he includes epigraphs from Richard Wilbur, A.E. Stallings, and Josef Pieper?
Here were my favorites from the volume:
- M.A.C.
-Twilight
- Incense on the Air
- Remember
- James' Book
- For Martha
- Vanished Fire
The main reason I even picked up this book in the first place was that it was literally handed to me for free at the Notre Dame Catholic Imagination/Ethics Conference. And after letting it sit on my shelf for four months, I finally decided to pick it up. I expected it to be alright, but it was much better than alright--I really enjoyed how James Matthew Wilson uses language. Per usual, I encountered some poems which I could not understand and was frustrated by that, but I think I need to keep pushing myself to read those frustrating poems, and ideally, to sit with them for a bit.
Oh, and did I mention that he includes epigraphs from Richard Wilbur, A.E. Stallings, and Josef Pieper?
Here were my favorites from the volume:
- M.A.C.
-Twilight
- Incense on the Air
- Remember
- James' Book
- For Martha
- Vanished Fire
Read
April 17, 2026“For all things turn about the love of God.”
May 12, 2024
This is the third volume from James Matthew Wilson I have read, last year I read Praying the Nicene Creed, and loved it. This year I read Two Poems for Martyrs
And I loved the two poems. So I picked this up the day the eBook was available. Wilson mentioned on social media that Two Poems was his shortest volume also that Catholic Modernism and the Irish "Avant-Garde": The Achievement of Brian Coffey, Denis Devlin, and Thomas MacGreevy which is his longest. This one is in between. I have added several of his works to my watch list either for eBooks to become available or to be available via adaptive technology. I have a dual form of dyslexia and prefer eBooks so I can change the font and colour of the font and page to make reading easier. I might give in and pick one up but am slow to get around to reading physical books. But for now I loved this volume and that it was available digitally. The description of this volume states:
“In James Matthew Wilson's fourth full-length collection of poems, the writer joins the great saint and theologian Thomas Aquinas to pause before "the thought of earthly sorrows" and to pray for "such a world that had so much to say."
These poems stand in wonder before the tumult and beauty of created things and the capacity of the soul to rise above it. We move from encounters with the world as revelation, mystery, and promise, to great scenes of sin and fracture such as the bombing of Dresden, the execution of the Roman philosopher Cicero, and scandals in the Church. The volume begins with the prospects for an unborn child soon to enter our stormy world and concludes with a "Farewell" to the place, home, and setting of many of these poems.
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds is a story and pilgrimage through the troubles of our age and beyond them to the reason for our hope, "for all things turn about the love of God."”
The sections and peoms in this volume are:
To an Unborn Child
I
Self-Possession
The Garden
M.A.C.
Return to Saint Thomas
Lilacs
Twilight
Cracks
Ambition
Incense on the Air
O, Tamar
A Withered Tree
The Fishing Camp
The Darkness Coming
Teele Square Sunday Morning, Summer 2001
From The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk
Waking in Dresden
II
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds
The Wisdom of Old Men
A Wedding Night
First Light
The Death of Cicero
Register
Elegy for a Tow Truck Driver
The Great State of Alaska
In the Fullness of Rhyme
The Prow of the House
Remember
In the Holding Cell
The Weakness of Men
The Kitchen Stove
Fire Light
Sloth
III
James’ Book
For Russell Kirk
First Words
After a Line by Maurice Scève
Australia
Elizabeth to Her Cousin
Sunlight
An Encounter
For Martha
Seeds
By That Heart Known
At Season’s End
High Seriousness
The Love of God
Snowfall
Vanished Fire
IV
Farewell to Berwyn
About the Author
Typically when I review a book of poetry I include a few poems from the collection that really spoke to me. Here are the ones I selected to share in this review:
M.A.C.
East Lansing, Michigan
On either side, the highway’s barren stretch
Is dwarfed by sweeping wastes of prairie grass,
Its pale dry leaves beneath dark heads of vetch
And clumps of sumac shimmering like glass.
To look on this, you’d think man had just come,
Bloomed with the Queen Anne’s lace, and will not last;
What little he set down as soon succumb
To stands of pine and maple or wind’s blast.
But, if you see the little streets erupt
On ancient marsh, the pool hall and brick church,
Where we boys grew both conscious and corrupt
Dispelling boredom, entering on the search
For just what sort of men we should become,
You’ll learn the place is thick with ghosts, is haunted
By faces kissed, fists thrown, and words that drum
Through time, as we sought what it was we wanted.
This was actually the first poem I read in the book. I looked at the list of poems and flipped to this one. In mart being of both Irish and Scottish heritage the title grabbed my attention. In school I was often referred to as Big Mac, and one of my brothers nickname has mac in it as well. I have gone back and reread it a few times.
The Wisdom of Old Men
Up north, in winter, at the snowy deer camp,
The old men circled always near the fire,
Kept company with the crack of burning logs,
Their backs leaned in and smooth beneath plaid flannel.
And what they were about, I do not know,
Who darted in and out with skis or sled,
Or tramped knee-deep through silent, buried woods
To follow deer tracks miles from the cabin.
Their slowing bodies cool and stiff, they may,
With nothing left to do, have only sought
The heat that sweated from the barrel stove,
Its blackened sides, its flickering mouth ajar.
But, even in my youth, I saw them there,
As those charged with remembering days past,
With pondering the clockworks of the world,
As gear on gear ground through their ordered circles;
Those who descended to a place of freedom,
Where we may wonder at what has been made,
As Nestor, old, among the furious Greeks,
Sat by and spoke above his warming hands.
I love winter camping, and this poem brought to mind my many years as a scouter and winter camping. It had me reflecting on the older scouters when I was a young leader, and the fact that I am now older than many of them were then. Snowshoeing into Algonquin Park, cross country ski trips in southern Ontario. And the wood stove and fire. A warm drink at the end of a journey or the end of a day.
For Russell Kirk
The panting ideologues who pace their rooms
Hear the word “order” and cry out in fear
That it is just a shibboleth for dooms
As yet unseen but whose goosesteps they hear.
But, it is better taken as the word
A bachelor mulls as he writes through the night
And which enables him, some thought occurred,
To set it down in prose both broad and tight.
While others lapse upon their couch in dreams,
Or type with bloodshot eyes and whiskey breath,
The ordered man appears as his work seems
Fixed with a permanence to outlast death.
Cathedral glass has color and firm border,
As do such men conformed by love to order.
I have yet to read any Russel Kirk, but his works have been on my ‘to be read’ pile for a number of years. I even have a friend who did his PhD thesis on Kirk’s works. So the title caught me from the beginning. And the last two lines have really stuck with me.
I freely admit I am not a literary critic. With my dual form of dyslexia I was just passed through on school. I do not know proper grammar or spelling rules. But I love books and reading. And I do enjoy poetry. This was a volume I enjoyed a great deal. Once I learned to read it was whole worlds that I never knew existed, and the poems in this volume were inspiring, encouraging and at times challenging. I believe this is an excellent collection of prayers. It is one I know I will return to.
This is an excellent little volume. I really wish some of James older volumes were available digitally. This one being available as an eBook was a blessing. This is a great collection of poems I can easily recommend!
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan!
And I loved the two poems. So I picked this up the day the eBook was available. Wilson mentioned on social media that Two Poems was his shortest volume also that Catholic Modernism and the Irish "Avant-Garde": The Achievement of Brian Coffey, Denis Devlin, and Thomas MacGreevy which is his longest. This one is in between. I have added several of his works to my watch list either for eBooks to become available or to be available via adaptive technology. I have a dual form of dyslexia and prefer eBooks so I can change the font and colour of the font and page to make reading easier. I might give in and pick one up but am slow to get around to reading physical books. But for now I loved this volume and that it was available digitally. The description of this volume states:
“In James Matthew Wilson's fourth full-length collection of poems, the writer joins the great saint and theologian Thomas Aquinas to pause before "the thought of earthly sorrows" and to pray for "such a world that had so much to say."
These poems stand in wonder before the tumult and beauty of created things and the capacity of the soul to rise above it. We move from encounters with the world as revelation, mystery, and promise, to great scenes of sin and fracture such as the bombing of Dresden, the execution of the Roman philosopher Cicero, and scandals in the Church. The volume begins with the prospects for an unborn child soon to enter our stormy world and concludes with a "Farewell" to the place, home, and setting of many of these poems.
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds is a story and pilgrimage through the troubles of our age and beyond them to the reason for our hope, "for all things turn about the love of God."”
The sections and peoms in this volume are:
To an Unborn Child
I
Self-Possession
The Garden
M.A.C.
Return to Saint Thomas
Lilacs
Twilight
Cracks
Ambition
Incense on the Air
O, Tamar
A Withered Tree
The Fishing Camp
The Darkness Coming
Teele Square Sunday Morning, Summer 2001
From The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk
Waking in Dresden
II
Saint Thomas and the Forbidden Birds
The Wisdom of Old Men
A Wedding Night
First Light
The Death of Cicero
Register
Elegy for a Tow Truck Driver
The Great State of Alaska
In the Fullness of Rhyme
The Prow of the House
Remember
In the Holding Cell
The Weakness of Men
The Kitchen Stove
Fire Light
Sloth
III
James’ Book
For Russell Kirk
First Words
After a Line by Maurice Scève
Australia
Elizabeth to Her Cousin
Sunlight
An Encounter
For Martha
Seeds
By That Heart Known
At Season’s End
High Seriousness
The Love of God
Snowfall
Vanished Fire
IV
Farewell to Berwyn
About the Author
Typically when I review a book of poetry I include a few poems from the collection that really spoke to me. Here are the ones I selected to share in this review:
M.A.C.
East Lansing, Michigan
On either side, the highway’s barren stretch
Is dwarfed by sweeping wastes of prairie grass,
Its pale dry leaves beneath dark heads of vetch
And clumps of sumac shimmering like glass.
To look on this, you’d think man had just come,
Bloomed with the Queen Anne’s lace, and will not last;
What little he set down as soon succumb
To stands of pine and maple or wind’s blast.
But, if you see the little streets erupt
On ancient marsh, the pool hall and brick church,
Where we boys grew both conscious and corrupt
Dispelling boredom, entering on the search
For just what sort of men we should become,
You’ll learn the place is thick with ghosts, is haunted
By faces kissed, fists thrown, and words that drum
Through time, as we sought what it was we wanted.
This was actually the first poem I read in the book. I looked at the list of poems and flipped to this one. In mart being of both Irish and Scottish heritage the title grabbed my attention. In school I was often referred to as Big Mac, and one of my brothers nickname has mac in it as well. I have gone back and reread it a few times.
The Wisdom of Old Men
Up north, in winter, at the snowy deer camp,
The old men circled always near the fire,
Kept company with the crack of burning logs,
Their backs leaned in and smooth beneath plaid flannel.
And what they were about, I do not know,
Who darted in and out with skis or sled,
Or tramped knee-deep through silent, buried woods
To follow deer tracks miles from the cabin.
Their slowing bodies cool and stiff, they may,
With nothing left to do, have only sought
The heat that sweated from the barrel stove,
Its blackened sides, its flickering mouth ajar.
But, even in my youth, I saw them there,
As those charged with remembering days past,
With pondering the clockworks of the world,
As gear on gear ground through their ordered circles;
Those who descended to a place of freedom,
Where we may wonder at what has been made,
As Nestor, old, among the furious Greeks,
Sat by and spoke above his warming hands.
I love winter camping, and this poem brought to mind my many years as a scouter and winter camping. It had me reflecting on the older scouters when I was a young leader, and the fact that I am now older than many of them were then. Snowshoeing into Algonquin Park, cross country ski trips in southern Ontario. And the wood stove and fire. A warm drink at the end of a journey or the end of a day.
For Russell Kirk
The panting ideologues who pace their rooms
Hear the word “order” and cry out in fear
That it is just a shibboleth for dooms
As yet unseen but whose goosesteps they hear.
But, it is better taken as the word
A bachelor mulls as he writes through the night
And which enables him, some thought occurred,
To set it down in prose both broad and tight.
While others lapse upon their couch in dreams,
Or type with bloodshot eyes and whiskey breath,
The ordered man appears as his work seems
Fixed with a permanence to outlast death.
Cathedral glass has color and firm border,
As do such men conformed by love to order.
I have yet to read any Russel Kirk, but his works have been on my ‘to be read’ pile for a number of years. I even have a friend who did his PhD thesis on Kirk’s works. So the title caught me from the beginning. And the last two lines have really stuck with me.
I freely admit I am not a literary critic. With my dual form of dyslexia I was just passed through on school. I do not know proper grammar or spelling rules. But I love books and reading. And I do enjoy poetry. This was a volume I enjoyed a great deal. Once I learned to read it was whole worlds that I never knew existed, and the poems in this volume were inspiring, encouraging and at times challenging. I believe this is an excellent collection of prayers. It is one I know I will return to.
This is an excellent little volume. I really wish some of James older volumes were available digitally. This one being available as an eBook was a blessing. This is a great collection of poems I can easily recommend!
This book is part of a series of reviews: 2024 Catholic Reading Plan!
April 22, 2025
Poetry collections are among my most frequently purchased and often-read books, so it is noteworthy that I was caught off guard by the discovery of a serious devotion to meter and rhyme in most of the poems included in this volume. While not already familiar with the poet, my understanding is that Wilson has published other books of verse and is well-respected as a writer of Catholic poetry. I'm glad I started reading this book without that knowledge, because it was fun to suspect this might be the case and satisfying to learn my suspicions were confirmed. I've had a lot of exposure to biblical scripture and have a familiarity with the themes and characters of Bible stories, so the poems with scriptural allusions were recognizable and accessible in a way that might not have been the case had I been less prepared. That said, most of the poems in the book focused on non-biblical themes, and were just as thoughtful and satisfactory as the more spiritually-oriented offerings.
I've already admitted my surprise at discovering the frequent use of a rhyme scheme in most of these poems, as that particular poetic seems to have fallen victim to more modernist sensibilities related to freedom from constraint in contemporary verse. To be fair, it's almost rather refreshing to appreciate the effort necessary to craft a poem with strict meter and rhyme in a new book. Several times I found myself reading these poems out loud in an effort to discover the prescribed flow and music of the stanzas as I moved through the book. It was also particularly amusing to see the poet's (defense?) of rhyme in a very clever entry entitled "The Fullness of Rhyme," which includes these lines:
"Some say that it's okay to slant,
While other poets swear one can't.
The former conjure some excuse
For every assonant abuse,
The latter, rather, want good order:
A well-kept path and guarded border.
While one can't write by guide or chart,
The artist gives the law to art."
One might think that even Miss Dickinson herself might appreciate the allusion to her preferred style with such clever phrasing.
I'll be interested in reading more my Mr. Wilson and would be willing to recommend this book to poetry-loving friends.
I've already admitted my surprise at discovering the frequent use of a rhyme scheme in most of these poems, as that particular poetic seems to have fallen victim to more modernist sensibilities related to freedom from constraint in contemporary verse. To be fair, it's almost rather refreshing to appreciate the effort necessary to craft a poem with strict meter and rhyme in a new book. Several times I found myself reading these poems out loud in an effort to discover the prescribed flow and music of the stanzas as I moved through the book. It was also particularly amusing to see the poet's (defense?) of rhyme in a very clever entry entitled "The Fullness of Rhyme," which includes these lines:
"Some say that it's okay to slant,
While other poets swear one can't.
The former conjure some excuse
For every assonant abuse,
The latter, rather, want good order:
A well-kept path and guarded border.
While one can't write by guide or chart,
The artist gives the law to art."
One might think that even Miss Dickinson herself might appreciate the allusion to her preferred style with such clever phrasing.
I'll be interested in reading more my Mr. Wilson and would be willing to recommend this book to poetry-loving friends.
March 4, 2025
There were parts of the poems that I thought were really beautiful and profound-- but some of the poems felt a little wordy for me. I always think of the Wislawa Symborska quote "Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words, / then labor heavily so that they may seem light.' And for much of this, I could feel the labor.
March 25, 2025
Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I'm not into poetry. I've known that for a while now. It's very hard for me to find a poetry book that makes me truly enjoy it.
This book wasn't bad, but I guess it just didn't work for me the way I hoped it would.
I'm not into poetry. I've known that for a while now. It's very hard for me to find a poetry book that makes me truly enjoy it.
This book wasn't bad, but I guess it just didn't work for me the way I hoped it would.
September 9, 2024
Wilson offers beautiful reflections on life through our troubled age and sees the beauty as well as the hope beyond this life.
November 4, 2024
Orderly.
August 1, 2025
4.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews