Ink Monkey: Poems

by Diana Hartog

?like Emily Dickinson, Hartog melds the ordinary with the visionary.? ? Joseph Stroud, author of Below Cold Mountain and Country of Light Ink Monkey is Diana Hartog?s first book of poetry in more than thirteen years, and her patience is the reader?s reward. In these spare and elegant poems ? not a word out of place, not an unnecessary syllable ? Hartog turns a perceptive eye toward the stories of seemingly ordinary things, of overlooked moments and long-closed rooms. Whether she is writing about jellyfish, the desert, awkward silences that end a relationship, struggles of creativity, or Japanese prints, her poems are astute and beautiful. Something ?up his sleeve,? as when a man in the West simply
leans against a wall with his hands in his pockets and a woman walks by, her starched French cuff dangling an
abalone button blinded with thread. The Muse leaning also, towards the East and the the poetic looseness of kimono sleeves,
damp with tears, in the Japanese canon of love. Sweet partings, trysts, exposing always the wrist, its pale throat, the heartbeat's
muted throb at the fork of the two blue rivers ? from ?Sleeves? ?Give Diana Hartog a subject ? monkeys, frogs, jellyfish, or a Japanese printmaker on the Tokaido road ? and she will play riffs that dazzle ?. With an adhesive poet's tongue, Hartog picks through her seemingly endless erudition for the humorous bits ? Leda in a hotel room leaving her feathers in the ashtray ? and yet she can crack the heart, as in the image 'the grass ? whipped every-which-way as if wild with grief. ?'? ? Rosemary Sullivan

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2006

Reviews

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really wanted to like this one, but even when she's at her best Diana Hartog is good but not great. There's something clunky about her poetry...I couldn't help but feel that her poems could have about 5% fewer words, like there was always an extra syllable or two imposing itself in each stanza. She has a few prose poems which I didn't think were great, and even her short poems—obviously inspired by Japanese poetry—seem to be not as meaningful or concise as they could be. However, I enjoy that she mixes a variety of forms throughout the book. Ink Monkey is divided into five sections (three inspired by Japan, one with desert motifs, and one focusing on jellyfish). I like how knowledgeable she seems on each subject and the fun trivia in the footnotes, but the only section that seemed to approach greatness is "Jellyfish Suite."

What I'd like is a suite comprised of 97% water (as are jellyfish), to be conducted at night, outside, with fireflies blinking and stars. Those in attendance will lie on their backs on the damp grass. A simple moon jelly will float past, with a pulse like that of a heart, the way it can skip a beat, or three, or four—a drifting silence in the chest.

(from "notes to the Composer:" p. 52)

Poems that I liked:
"Ultraviolet," "The Couple in Room 12," "A Moon Jelly," "Notes to the Composer:," "Hot," "The Deep Blue."

=6/53 (11.3%) poems that I liked.

[Steven Buechler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hartog’s words may seem simple and the subject of her poems a bit off beat, but upon second and third readings of her works, one realizes the profound observations she is making about society and the world we all inhabit.

my complete review

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the "Jellyfish Suite" series.