Honest Engine

by Kyle Dargan

In this his fourth collection, award-winning poet Kyle Dargan examines the mechanics of the heart and mind as they are weathered by loss. Following a spate of deaths among family and friends, Dargan chooses to present not color-negative elegies but self-portraits that capture what of these departed figures remains within him. Amid this processing of mortality, it becomes clear that he has arrived at a turning point as a writer and a man.

As the title suggests, Dargan aspires toward an unflinching honesty. These poems do not purport to possess life’s answers or seek to employ language to mask what they do not know. Dargan confesses as a means of reaching out to the nomadic human soul and inviting it to accompany him on a walk toward the unknown.

Genres: Poetry

97 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2015

About the author

KYLE DARGAN is author of the poetry collection Anagnorisis (Northwestern UP, 2018), which was awarded the 2019 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and longlisted for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His four previous collections, Honest Engine (2015), Logorrhea Dementia (2010), Bouquet of Hungers (2007) and The Listening (2003)--were all published by the University of Georgia Press. For his work, he has received the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His books have also been finalists for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Eric Hoffer Awards Grand Prize. Dargan has partnered with the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to produce poetry programming at the White House and Library of Congress. He's worked with and supports a number of youth writing organizations, such as 826DC, Writopia Lab, Young Writers Workshop and the Dodge Poetry high schools program.

Reviews

[Craig]

Scanning the “marked as to-read” and “added” notes in the list for this title, I can’t help but notice a gender weighting towards the feminine. Nothing wrong with that. But if the community will indulge me, I’d like to add a “dude” review on the off chance any male bias against, or fear of, poetry lingers. (Seems unlikely here on Goodreads, but one never knows.) Here goes:

Kyle Dargan writes with 4K HD clarity; streaming images and ideas like his brain was hooked up with Google Fiber. His words are driven like a Tesla in insanity mode. When he turns inward he is as open, raw, and naked as any reality TV star – Kardashian or otherwise – with the important distinction that what we get is passion, reflection, and honesty, not vacuity or morass. (More ass. See what I did there?) Bottom line: you need to read this man’s shit.

Done. Ripping off the low-T patches now.

[Jerome Ellison Murphy]

"Never pen a message and set it adrift / in a bottle you have not drained / with your own lips," opines the speaker of Kyle Dargan's "Unless Marooned." Feeling marooned in a sea of obscure non sequitur, louche over-cleverness, unearned pathos? Lift this bottle to your lips. I've now read it twice and it only gets better.

HONEST ENGINE is a brilliantly philosophical look at the involuntary battles of the sexes, of the classes, of humanity and technology. Balancing metaphorical zest (with a speculative eye trained, one senses, on dystopian sci-fi) with startling accuracy of observation, Dargan brings both intellect and a big, bruised heart to this state-of-the-union address, with a conversational register modulated, at strategic turns, into resonant music. There is a dignity, a nobility, in this book: old-fashioned virtues, sparked by Dargan's fervor into new relevance.

[Chase!]

“First, this loss / of blossoms—a small heartbreak / followed by bit-lip humming / that somehow heals.” Five years later, these poems seem prescient - more, than anything, a reminder that none of “this” is new. A challenging collection that engages deeply with complicity, violence, tenderness, repair, God, the universe, and beyond.

[Kevin Doherty]

Grew on me as I progressed...though lines like: ‘We are braids tied between birth and death’s buoys.’ are worth waiting for- touched me!

[Courtney Smith]

Honest is the word. Powerful and layered, an unapologetic look at our egos, frailties, loss, and assumptions.

[silas denver melvin]

love the closing poem in particular, "pale blue dot". also very fond of "art project"

[J Earl]

Poetry is an interesting art form. Some readers shy away from it while others approach carefully, unsure what to expect. At its best poetry has the ability to express something of the poet's heart while also allowing the reader to invest some of his heart as well. Kyle Dargan's Honest Engine is an example of poetry at its best.

It is intimately personal yet also international in scope. There are not many volumes, regardless of genre or length, that can make that claim. I tended toward the more personal which also suits my interest in culture and how we all operate within (without?) it. Not to mention I always enjoy hearing Love TKO running through my brain.

Because of my background I was a little unsure with the title because of the similarity it has to an old phrase ("honest injun") but quickly got past that as I came to appreciate Dargan's project.

Two things I want to leave with you. First, one poem entitled "State of the Union" was both timely and put a smile on my face with the image it gives. And second, my favorite line (to fully appreciate get the book and read the poem, "Suprematist Sweet Nothings"): "Make of me not song but singing."

I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading contemporary poetry that is both beautiful and thought-provoking.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.

[Leah]

States May Sing Their Songs of Praise


I imagine each enunciation, each syllable
pronounced—Mississippi—makes a noose
cinch somewhere, rope reduced
to arousal, tightening. The pull,
the hard-learned feel of vertebrae supple
within a neck's column, and marrow's juice
sucked clean until what remains are flutes
of bone, a wind section of rubble.

Whenever I meet Mississippi in a dream,
it is always a landfill of labored breaths
or a grand mammal crippled in morass.
What did you ever want of us? I ask. It beams,
The same you want for me—the subtle heft
of razors beneath the magnolia tongue's lash.

[Sarah]

Kyle Dargan closes his introduction with the following: "...I am seeing our human dilemma anew and questioning what I can afford to continue believing. With maturation, there is mounting darkness, but I cannot allow it to be all I see."
This collection is about that-- about being in your early thirties and figuring yourself out and not succumbing to the pain of the experience of being alive. The poems are honest and smart and brave and worth reading.

[Emily Graves]

I don't think you have to live in DC to enjoy Dargan's irreverent, funny, and profound verse, but it helps. Reflecting on race, masculinity, and pop culture, this book is a lovely, fun trip that will have you rethinking the world around you. Wonderful.

[Jerrod]

Wide-ranging, deeply felt, and lyrical: a flawless display.

[sam wilder]

we are insignificant, and that is beautiful.