Kingdom

by Joseph Millar

Kingdom extends Joseph Millar’s articulate devotion to the astonishments of daily life―their mingled beauty and pain. As in his first three books, Millar, like the late Philip Levine, has a keen eye for the hardscrabble details of working-class lives―from California’s wheat fields to the Lehigh Valley to the rooftops of Paris and a host of other locales “down here on earth in the kingdom.” Perhaps more fully than any recent book, this one calls to mind Dylan Thomas’s assessment that the best poems “show us that we are alone and not alone in the unknown world, that our bliss and suffering are forever shared, and forever all our own.” Kingdom shows Millar working at the height of his powers, sifting the “rag and bone shop of the heart” for songs and stories. It’s his best book yet.

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

Published February 14, 2017

Reviews

[John DiConsiglio]

Pittsburgh’s Millar got his hands dirty as a fisherman & telephone repairman before turning to rust-belt poetry. He’s best when flexing his working-class voice & weary masculinity. (In “Bad Love Affair,” he prowls the night watching “stars, the sparks from a lit cigarette/thrown down onto Dolores Street,/empty Corona bottles,/wisps of blond hair left behind on your pillow.”) He’s not as good rhapsodizing on flowers, fields & horses. There’s a regrettable verse about trans-people too. Let’s leave him where he’s most at-home: Waiting on a train at a Penn Station Nathan’s or “Alone after hours in the dark cantina/watching clips of the great ’80s middleweights.”

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Millar's fourth poetry collection, and he has returned to the long-lined, description-heavy style that characterized his earlier work (Overtime and Fortune) but was more stripped-down in Blue Rust. Personally, I am glad for the return to the older style; not that I didn't like Blue Rust, but I really enjoy Millar's descriptions of city and nature (and often his merging of the two, like in "California": "Sometimes the afternoon train / looks like pieces of fallen sky / chained together"; “Nobody wants to fall asleep / watching the stars burn like trash fires / listening to the big waves smoke / down the rocks, / nobody wants to sleep” (“Night”)).

Two other things that Millar does very well are write poems about sports and love. “How long will you be so bereft?” he asks in “Bad Love Affair”: “Alone after hours in the dark cantina / watching clips of the great ‘80s middleweights: / Hagler and Leonard, Roberto Duran / or Tommy Hearns from Detroit / who would smile in the ring / like he had a secret / every time he was hurt.” “Language,” “Why Women Live Longer,” and “Valentine” are all beautiful examples of how love can remain vital even as the two lovers grow older together.

While Overtime largely centered on the theme of work, it only makes sporadic appearances now (perhaps reflecting the author’s increasing distance from the blue collar work that filled his earlier years). However, when Millar does talk about work, it stands out: “happy enough to be going to work / on a Friday under the dawnwashed sky / of Johnson’s Great Society, / with the Lehigh Valley opening its thighs / and the weekend gorged with promise” (“The Day After Sinatra Married Mia Farrow”).

I highly recommend this collection—Joseph Millar is quite a poet, and worthy of your time.

[Amy Layton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kingdom was such an interesting collection to read--Millar discusses so many different aspects of life, from relationships, to sports, to locations, to transportation...and he does it in a way that makes you absolutely fall in love with what he's discussing.  Millar certainly has a way with words, and his descriptions are absolutely beautiful.  This is definitely worth a read if you're interested in expanding upon contemporary poets and their poetry.  You won't be disappointed.

Review cross-listed here!