Rough Day

by Ed Skoog

"Ed Skoog is a master of mischief and misdirection...I find a unique alchemy in this a deep sadness combined with a broad humor, and most of all a sense that I'm being allowed to see a poet watching himself in the midst of evolving, captured in motion like a series of time-lapse photographs." —Susan Cohen, Prairie Schooner Composed during long walks throughout Washington, DC, and careful to err on the side of recklessness, Rough Day finds its essential unity in a fixation on American events and landscapes—from Yellowstone and New Orleans to Kansas and the Pacific Northwest. Throughout, Ed Skoog maintains an openness to discovery that unveils rare and prismatic views into his country. A native of Topeka, Kansas, Ed Skoog's first book of poetry, Mister Skylight (Copper Canyon Press), was published in 2009. His poetry has appeared in Poetry , American Poetry Review , and The Paris Review . He teaches at the University of Montana and lives in Missoula, Montana

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are glimmers of beautiful language in digressive, non-linear lines and phrases, but unfortunately the collection doesn't cohere. There are no titles, very little punctuation, tortured grammar and some non-sensical lines. ("trembling weeds have grown since last rain/ unless you touch them they will recite famous speeches"); ("His grin's upside-down police cruiser/and neck strain's tight as a hunter's field in fall...");(" The condo held the rock star's body like a upper/and though it keeps small lawn/clean and circumspect as a creche") Some of the lines and phrases are self-contained like aphorisms or stand alone lines indicating a particular thought but the overall sense is one of a percussive distortion rather than epiphanic discovery. And yet there are a few poems (page 36, pages 74-79) where there is a beginning, middle and end that stays true to Skoog's style and it is these poems that the reader wishes the author spent more time attempting to create rather than what we have before us.And although I can understand (or at least think I can) the intent of what the author is attempting, these private ruminations become stultifying and frustratingly insular in the public forum of publication.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really a good companion on my trip to Mexico. "From inside the secondhand store I admire" was my favorite especially the line "on mars the device continues to crawl". Good work Ed!

[Greg Bem · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt my insides open or wait that was before and now they are a quagmire of queries and chiseled image.

[Michael Forsyth · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a few poems in here that I really like, but mostly, I feel exhausted and none the wiser. Overall, this book feels incredibly amateur. The stand-outs are the opening poem and all of book 4; the remainder, well, fairly forgettable.

[Philip Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skoog's language is familiar, warm, but like a home - for me - fraught with challenges. Some good, some that I assume would battle his intentions. These are mostly my problems. For one, my dyslexia ratchets up on many of his constructs and forms. And then: "I struggle with myself of course/I struggle with these lines" he throws me a preserver of double meaning that goes on to triple for me.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

First four sections are rather obscure, but more accessible than first book. Section 5 flows better and I was able to visualize images and connections better. Not as dark as First book. Diving into Volume 3--His latest later today.

[KJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my style. I quit at the poem that ended with a line about whale-farted waters. I'm out. No more poetry for me.