Line Dance

by Barbara Crooker

In Line Dance, Barbara Crooker embraces the world with open arms, in open celebration: "everyone I've ever loved/is here today, even the dead, raising a glass/and dancing.../bubbles rising/in a fluted glass, spilling out, running over." Even these graceful poems can scarcely contain the world's abundance. Line Dance is a sublime tonic against the darkness.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Barbara 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). "

Reviews

[Glenda. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of poems to savor. I loved it.

[Jan Duncan-O'Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crooker captures the moment with her sharp skills of observation and uses apt images so that the reader can visualize or experience her poems vividly. This book is not as satisfying, however, as her first book Radiance. The typeface is crowded so that I had to struggle to read some poems. Some poems in this new book seem arcane, but others are as brilliant as her best work is. I especially liked "Les Effets de Neige: Impressionists in Winter," "The Slate Graey Junco," "Lemons," and "In the Camargue."

[Ann Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Barbara Crooker's work; I am giving this 4 stars because I think Radiance is a slightly better book--slight;y. Both are good--"accessible" in the best sense of the word; elegant; moving.