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For Now
Classic meets contemporary in James Richardson’s ninth collection. Writers from Bashō to Hardy, from Merwin to Porchia, inspire meditations on everything from artichokes to cosmology that somehow morph into fables of limitation and desire. This “new poetry made the old way” takes seriously the task of lightening and illuminating our experience, and especially, of distilling it. As Richardson writes, “The road not taken also would have gotten me home.” More than sixty poems of ten lines or fewer, and two sequences of Richardson’s trademark aphorisms and “ten-second essays,” are set alongside surging lyric meditations and odes. For Now celebrates nows of every length, from the sweep of cosmic evolution, to the span of a life, to the glint of dew on a cold shovel.
- GenresPoetry
107 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 9, 2020
2 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
James Richardson
318 books44 followersThis is the disambiguation page for otherwise unseparated authors publishing as James Richardson.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 30, 2020
I really like “For Now” by James Richardson and I think it has a wide appeal for readers and non-readers of poetry.
Richardson’s style is a free verse contemporary meditation on life. He favors a lot of metaphors, but they tend to be very concrete. This makes Richardson’s chapbook an easy and enjoyable read - the best type of poetry.
What sets “For Now” apart from other books is how similar it is to mainstream Instagram poetry. I feel like Richardson might feel as if this is an insult, but I really mean this with an upmost sincere compliment. While the majority of Instagram poets have an accessible style, they tend to favor vague abstractions to a degree that lacks any real individuality. Richardson, despite his age and literary background, takes advantage of the contemporary zeitgeist of symbolic experimentation and delivers a powerful and unique collection of poems.
The author’s poetic forms change throughout the book, but the strength in this chapbook is the sheer veracity of its cohesiveness. There were only a handful of poems and arrangements I felt did not match, leaving me impressed with Richardson organization of the collection. And braiding some of the shorter poems together as a larger sequence? Brilliant… especially since there were a few shorter pieces (some only a line or so) that seemed uninspired on their own but worked as part of a larger poem.
That said, this experimentation did fall short in one crucial area: there were times throughout the collection when I wasn’t sure where one poem ended and another began. Perhaps that was Richardson’s intent to go with the “for now” theme of the book, but it made me question some of my interpretations.
Who would love “For Now” the most? If you’re a fan of poetry, even Instagram poetry, you’ll find a like mind in this book. He takes vague aphorisms to their heights in a way few can. There is a sense of wistfulness in his poems which older readers and the sentimental will be inspired by. I also think someone who is interested in Japanese culture or their poetic forms might find his contemporary interpretations on the haiku form compelling.
I don’t think this book warrants caution in readership. Young and old can read these poems without reservation. Though there is a sense of nostalgia in Richardson’s work, he manages to do so without creating so specific a sentimentality that it’s not relatable to a general audience. You can gift this book to anyone without worry of how it will be received.
Overall, I really liked “For Now” by James Richardson and I believe you will too.
Richardson’s style is a free verse contemporary meditation on life. He favors a lot of metaphors, but they tend to be very concrete. This makes Richardson’s chapbook an easy and enjoyable read - the best type of poetry.
What sets “For Now” apart from other books is how similar it is to mainstream Instagram poetry. I feel like Richardson might feel as if this is an insult, but I really mean this with an upmost sincere compliment. While the majority of Instagram poets have an accessible style, they tend to favor vague abstractions to a degree that lacks any real individuality. Richardson, despite his age and literary background, takes advantage of the contemporary zeitgeist of symbolic experimentation and delivers a powerful and unique collection of poems.
The author’s poetic forms change throughout the book, but the strength in this chapbook is the sheer veracity of its cohesiveness. There were only a handful of poems and arrangements I felt did not match, leaving me impressed with Richardson organization of the collection. And braiding some of the shorter poems together as a larger sequence? Brilliant… especially since there were a few shorter pieces (some only a line or so) that seemed uninspired on their own but worked as part of a larger poem.
That said, this experimentation did fall short in one crucial area: there were times throughout the collection when I wasn’t sure where one poem ended and another began. Perhaps that was Richardson’s intent to go with the “for now” theme of the book, but it made me question some of my interpretations.
Who would love “For Now” the most? If you’re a fan of poetry, even Instagram poetry, you’ll find a like mind in this book. He takes vague aphorisms to their heights in a way few can. There is a sense of wistfulness in his poems which older readers and the sentimental will be inspired by. I also think someone who is interested in Japanese culture or their poetic forms might find his contemporary interpretations on the haiku form compelling.
I don’t think this book warrants caution in readership. Young and old can read these poems without reservation. Though there is a sense of nostalgia in Richardson’s work, he manages to do so without creating so specific a sentimentality that it’s not relatable to a general audience. You can gift this book to anyone without worry of how it will be received.
Overall, I really liked “For Now” by James Richardson and I believe you will too.
December 29, 2020
I especially love his aphorisms. The PG-50 ones really hit home. “Resolution: I will no longer think, hearing the apocalyptic News, ‘No worries, I’ll be dead before the worst happens.’ “ How appropriate for the last week of 2020.
April 24, 2022
This is a tale of aging from a poet’s perspective. These poems are so fresh and so vivid that they are stuck in my mind. It was nice to get this look at aging and at certain objects like hands in a lot of different ways.
February 27, 2021
I like his aphorisms.
January 31, 2022
Re cats and paperclips. Reflections, musings, with no real urgency on resolving conflicts created.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews