Sentences and Rain

by Elaine Equi

Whether celebrating clones or revising Led Zeppelin, Equi melds verse with aphorism, wisdom with wicked playfulness."— Entertainment Weekly Equi's poems are under the breath asides from your cleverest friend—witty, thoughtful, and wry. SLIGHT A slight implies
if not an insult
(real or imagined)
at least something
unpleasant --
a slight cold,
a slight headache.
No one ever
"You make me slightly happy."
Although this, in fact,
is often the case.
Widely published and anthologized, Elaine Equi 's work has appeared in The New Yorker , Poetry , The American Poetry Review , Nation , and numerous volumes of The Best American Poetry .

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2015

Reviews

[BookishStitcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable poetry collection

[Erica Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something undeniably hip about Elaine Equi's poetry, not a "cooler than thou" attitude, but a wry humor, a sly wisdom. She's New York before your favorite restaurant was replaced by a bank. Her observations are human, but also expansive. In "Dear Martyr," she writes:

Once I was like you,
so ready and able to see

one point—infinite
in all directions.

In the same poem, the speaker admits to having senses like "weapon and prayer." That could be the book's subtitle. It's hard not to notice the collection's duality, how it can swerve between emotion and intellect, between lyricism and something like H.D.'s imagism. This is a surprising, fully rendered collection from a poet at the top of her game.

[Jeremy Allan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I like most about this book is that it feels very much like a poetry collection in the proper sense: this is a gathering of poems rather than a book project. Kudos to the poets who pull off books that are also projects, but I am grateful to Elaine Equi for the many delights of Sentences and Rain. Part of what makes the collection delight is the fact that there is no (apparent) overriding logic, and so the poems tend to surprise us more with their variety. And pleasure is still worthwhile in literature, isn't it? This collection pleases.

[Sofa_king · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more I read these poems, the more I like them.

[Julie Jordan Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, seemingly simple yet quite rich in content poems scattered across the pages, much like the title itself "sentences and rain" which I found quite clever and pleasant.

Equi's short sentence missives are capable of creating a lot of expansive thought about creating space in art and writing, what trees are actually doing when they stand out in the rain with a smidge of anti-capitalism thrown in for good measure.

I checked this book from my local library though I believe I could benefit from owning my own copy to read a poem each day and hold them loosely rather than attempt to read more quickly before the due date.

[Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the snapshot/moment- recording quality of many of the poems in this collection, but she frequently did a witty resolution tactic to end poems that I found to be just a little cliché. It happened enough that it got to be irritating. Not enough of the poems had harmony.

[Guillermo Andrade Uribe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe not that into poetry.

[Cara M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book of poems quite a bit. A few were very playful and intelligent 🕊

[edmondegreen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: Soft 4.

75 poems - mostly short ones. No sections or overriding theme. Sixteen pieces had been previously published as a chapbook.

Favorites:
"Umbrella Photo Poems"
"Let's Do Lunch"
"Better Is Better than Not Better"
"McCabe and Mrs. Miller" - the movie

There one listens not to the sea,
but to the murmur of a thousand cliches
about the sea and to the perpetually sighing breeze.
- "Pathos"

For Edward Hopper: A perfect piece of lemon meringue pie in a
diner at midnight, where the only other customer is Greta Garbo
reading a book.
- "Time Traveler's Potlatch"

Men and women require dreams
as rooms require doors.
- "A Medium-Rare Serenade"

[Dustin Pickering]

This collection offers an analogy for the modern mind. My impression of this work is it is highly robust, mindful, nuanced, and glaring with high thought. I first learned of Equi through Anis Shivani's Against the Workshop where he expresses an admiration for the poet.

Equi is inspired by William Carlos Williams and objectivism, among other influences. Her poetry is open and flexible, thoughtful, and similtaneously magical in its delirium. The work as a whole is a magnifying glass to stream-of-consciousness.