What do you think?
Rate this book
More
Poetry. "Rarely has a book of poems been as aptly titled as Barbara Crooker's MORE. Propelled by her hunger for beauty and language, she flies in low over human experience, noticing every gesture, every flavor, every nuance of color and light. Whether she is pondering a spill of salt or stepping into a painting by Hopper, Crooker never for one second lets us forget what it is to be alive and how many ways we have been given to express our gratitude for this simple fact. 'How did all this loveliness / spring from the dark?' she asks in one poem. I don't know the answer, but by the timeI finished reading this book, I could only agree with its final 'I want all this to last'"--Sue Ellen Thompson
- GenresPoetry
Audio CD
First published March 5, 2010
1 person is currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Crooker
31 books34 followersBarbara Crooker's books are Radiance, which won the 2005 Word Press First Book competition and was a finalist for the 2006 Paterson Poetry Prize; Line Dance, (Word Press 2008), which won the 2009 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence; and More (C & R Press, 2010). "
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Read
June 25, 2018I like to put my money where my mouth is sometimes by buying not only a poetry book by a famous author (Louise Gluck, Mary Oliver, Charles Simic) but a poetry book by a less well-known poet.
Barbara Crooker has earned her keep over the years, but she still isn't Louise, Mary, or Charles. Still, I enjoyed this 2010 outing. For a taste, I give you "Yes":
Yes
"Yes was the best answer to every question."
--Frank McCourt, Teacher Man
So I said yes to everything, yes to the green hills
rolling out ahead, yes to the hayfield tied up in rolls,
yes to the clouds blooming like peonies in the sky's
blue meadow, the long tongue of the road lolling
out before me, yes to the life of travel, yes to the other
life at home, yes to the daisies freckling the ditch,
to the sun pouring down on everything
like Vermeer's milkmaid and her endless
jug of milk, yes to the winds that pulled the clouds
apart like taffy, then turned them into a classroom
of waving hands punch into fists: yes yes yes.
Barbara Crooker has earned her keep over the years, but she still isn't Louise, Mary, or Charles. Still, I enjoyed this 2010 outing. For a taste, I give you "Yes":
Yes
"Yes was the best answer to every question."
--Frank McCourt, Teacher Man
So I said yes to everything, yes to the green hills
rolling out ahead, yes to the hayfield tied up in rolls,
yes to the clouds blooming like peonies in the sky's
blue meadow, the long tongue of the road lolling
out before me, yes to the life of travel, yes to the other
life at home, yes to the daisies freckling the ditch,
to the sun pouring down on everything
like Vermeer's milkmaid and her endless
jug of milk, yes to the winds that pulled the clouds
apart like taffy, then turned them into a classroom
of waving hands punch into fists: yes yes yes.
October 12, 2019
I’m not a big poetry reader but I’m trying. This book was wonderful for us beginners. Barbara Crooker writes poems as if in conversation with you. I’ll be reading more of her books.
April 6, 2013
“Always, this hunger for more.” Barbara Crooker ends the opening poem of her delicious collection More with this declaration of insatiability. It’s very telling and appropriate, given that hunger – both physical and spiritual – is the central theme that simmers in the heart and soul of each poem.
Crooker’s poetry is electric. She ignites her readers’ senses with her seemingly unquenchable lust for more, more, more. “You want a bad boy for a lover,/one who’d make a lousy husband,/a wanderer on a Harley,” she writes in the lustful “What You Want”, capturing the eternal crave for something better, faster, sexier.
Crooker injects sensual images of food into many of the poems, attempting to stir up the desire in her readers – and it works. “Velvet on the tongue. The light/of late afternoons. I am eating/sunshine, spread on bread,” she writes in “Ode to Olive Oil”. Similarly, in “Excuses, Excuses” she writes, “The sweetness/of the creamy cake slides off my fork/like eating a cloud. The engine/of our new marriage hums and purrs.”
One her many strengths as a poet is her seamless ability to control the emotional tone in each poem. Crooker knows just when to strike at the heart strings, how to mastermind the melancholy, the wanderlust, the regrets by never allowing them to take over the poem, but rather revealing them in subtle – but very strategic – flashes. “All of us, broken, some way/or other. All of us dazzling in the brilliant slanting light,” she writes in “Strewn”, acknowledging the hope that burns through the final lines of many of the poems.
Crooker’s work is accessible – call it “reader friendly”. While she demonstrates a mastery of technique – evident in her command of form – it is the confident, often playful, energetic voice in each of her poems that wraps around the yearning soul of her readers as if to say, “I’m hungry for more, too. Just like you.” And, in the end, it’s true. This collection will leave you wanting more, more, more of Crooker’s work. “I will enter your body like a jolt of caffeine,” she promises in one of the finest poems in this collection “Frida Kahlo Speaks”. And, without a doubt, Crooker has made good on her word.
Crooker’s poetry is electric. She ignites her readers’ senses with her seemingly unquenchable lust for more, more, more. “You want a bad boy for a lover,/one who’d make a lousy husband,/a wanderer on a Harley,” she writes in the lustful “What You Want”, capturing the eternal crave for something better, faster, sexier.
Crooker injects sensual images of food into many of the poems, attempting to stir up the desire in her readers – and it works. “Velvet on the tongue. The light/of late afternoons. I am eating/sunshine, spread on bread,” she writes in “Ode to Olive Oil”. Similarly, in “Excuses, Excuses” she writes, “The sweetness/of the creamy cake slides off my fork/like eating a cloud. The engine/of our new marriage hums and purrs.”
One her many strengths as a poet is her seamless ability to control the emotional tone in each poem. Crooker knows just when to strike at the heart strings, how to mastermind the melancholy, the wanderlust, the regrets by never allowing them to take over the poem, but rather revealing them in subtle – but very strategic – flashes. “All of us, broken, some way/or other. All of us dazzling in the brilliant slanting light,” she writes in “Strewn”, acknowledging the hope that burns through the final lines of many of the poems.
Crooker’s work is accessible – call it “reader friendly”. While she demonstrates a mastery of technique – evident in her command of form – it is the confident, often playful, energetic voice in each of her poems that wraps around the yearning soul of her readers as if to say, “I’m hungry for more, too. Just like you.” And, in the end, it’s true. This collection will leave you wanting more, more, more of Crooker’s work. “I will enter your body like a jolt of caffeine,” she promises in one of the finest poems in this collection “Frida Kahlo Speaks”. And, without a doubt, Crooker has made good on her word.
August 8, 2010
One of the opening poems in Barbara Crooker's More, has the persona lamenting the loss of her mother and a friend: "I don't know how to say goodbye. Time should be/more elastic, we should be able to pull it/like molassess taffy, stretch out its tawny sweetness."
This longing for more -- more time, more love, more answers, more toughness, even more food --- makes up the central theme of Crooker's third full length collection. Most of her poems deal with loss of time and loss of love -- common themes in poetry, yet we never feel, when we are reading Crooker's work, that it's been said before. Plus, she offsets many of the more serious poems with other works like "Ode to Olive Oil" and "Ode to Chocolate." (Now, that's my kind of poet!)
I have been a fan of Crooker's for some time and have most of her collections. I have to say that this latest collection is my favorite.
This longing for more -- more time, more love, more answers, more toughness, even more food --- makes up the central theme of Crooker's third full length collection. Most of her poems deal with loss of time and loss of love -- common themes in poetry, yet we never feel, when we are reading Crooker's work, that it's been said before. Plus, she offsets many of the more serious poems with other works like "Ode to Olive Oil" and "Ode to Chocolate." (Now, that's my kind of poet!)
I have been a fan of Crooker's for some time and have most of her collections. I have to say that this latest collection is my favorite.
March 30, 2020
A beloved book of poetry I return to again and again. I needed it this week, especially. After so much difficult news—far away and closer, closer. In this collection, the wonderful poet Barbara Crooker looks willingly at sadness and longing and then speaks on the next page of joy, overlaying them both with a beautiful acceptance that I can only hope I am growing towards. I want more time, more beauty, more delicious living, too, Ms, Crooker. Even with the certain darkness, I will never stop wanting more.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews