All Talk

by Rich Smith

"Rich Smith’s All Talk is like listening to my own inner-life but hearing it articulated in a way that makes sense, it’s like figuring out something about the world and then knowing we might never really know what the world is. I read these poems and I feel an urgency, I feel better about things, I feel tongue-tied. Smith’s work makes me want to smoke cigarettes, order for the whole bar, fall in love, and die in some happy but messy way."

—Matthew Dickman

Rich Smith is the author of the chapbook Great Poem of Desire and Other Poems (Poor Claudia 2013). His poems have appeared in Tin House, Guernica, Barrow Street, Pinwheel, and a number of other places. He grew up in Belton, MO and now lives and works in Seattle, WA.

Genres: Poetry

110 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Brendon Hertz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was featured in the poetry section of one of my favorite bookstores in Seattle, and so I scooped it. At the beginning of the book to more than halfway through, I thought I had the author pinned and was going to be slightly disappointed with mediocrity until I turned a black dividing page (which divide the book into supposedly themed sections, some only one poem long???) to the section inspired by a living muse, Sarah, where Rich Smith takes the reader down the realist relationship apparently he'd had with this woman-- at times funny to the near point of tears and then sad to the point of tears. I found the last thirty to forty pages of this collection to be well worth the read overall.

[Noah Doser · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rich Smith was a student of Sarah Barber with whom I currently study at St. Lawrence University. I have no idea where he went to grad school but she has confirmed he is her only published student. Sarah recommended this book to me when I reached a slump in my personal writings, which often divulged into chaotic ramblings on words that sounded good together. I read this collection on the back porch of a rustic Maryland cabin outside of Annapolis. I needed this book. Smith's work has a clear flow and overall thematic connection stronger than most other poetry collections I've read. Subtly, he remarks on mundane thoughts that stride together to create an unexpected portrayal of early-20s anxiety and peer-to-peer relationships. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but I quite like it.