Dot

by Ron Padgett

IN A NEW POETRY COLLECTION, PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST RON PADGETT ILLUMINATES THE WONDERS INSIDE EVEN THE SMALLEST EXPERIENCES.

In Dot, Ron Padgett returns with more of the playfully profound work that has endeared him to generations of readers. Guided by curiosity and built on wit, generosity of spirit, and lucid observation, Dot shows how any experience, no matter how mundane, can lead to a poem that flares like gentle fireworks in the night sky of the reader’s mind.

Genres: Poetry

127 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 1, 2022

About the author

Ron Padgett is a poet and translator whose Collected Poems won the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and the 2014 Los Angeles Times Prize for the best poetry book. Padgett has translated the poetry of Apollinaire, Pierre Reverdy, Valery Larbaud, and Blaise Cendrars.

Reviews

[Bhavish]

I love Ron Padgett’s ability to magnify the mundane - banal occurrences like falling asleep or walking outside in November with someone you love are described with wit and playfulness in simple and short poems. A nice reprieve from the current news cycle.

[Michael Casteels]

Dot is the kind of poetry book that recharges my poetic batteries when they’re feeling drained. It’s a book that inspires possibilities of what poems are/what poems can be, what lines can do, what words are composed of. I especially liked the inclusion of short essay-like pieces throughout the book. I’d love to read a whole book of those. Another incredible Padgett collection for my bookshelf.

[Anthony Hagen]

Ron Padgett is the kind of writer with no pretensions of wisdom. He actively avoids profundity, and is utterly profound as a result. So: the best kind of writer.

[Mallory]

3.5

Enjoyed but didn’t blow me away.

[Nicole Fegan]

quirky poetry - often more glib and banal than anything. this is probably pretty GOOD quirky poetry, but it is so far from my personal preference that i find it impossible to comment on further.

[Andrei Mocuţa]

Enjoyed some of the poems while reading, but forgot everything after closing the book. In fact, I wanted to read Ron Padgett because Jim Jarmusch used some of his poems in the movie Paterson.

[Cameron Clark]

This collection of poetry is my first serious attempt to get into the genre. Overall, I enjoyed my time with it. There were a couple that really spoke to me, some that I enjoyed on a single reading, and some that I just couldn't find myself even beginning to understand. I think this collection is at its best when the poems are slightly dry in the humor, but overall discussing deeper topics such as aging, death, and the limited creation of art we as humans are capable of.

[ReadBecca]

I'm not a huge poetry reader, but I did enjoy the sense of playfulness and word play in many of these. A handful were not very poetic to my ear, a few I liked very much, some I didn't, others I just didn't get at all.

[Nelson]

Pretty solid too, not as impactful as the previous poetry collection I'd just finished, however, it was great still in other ways, especially about aging, language, the passage of time, and change itself.

[A L]

More warm wit, and a poem in the form of a 5-graph essay.

[Joseph]

a new padgett book is always welcome

[Fuuma]

I am not a fan of reading poetry.
I should not have tried to read poetry 😂

[Aritra Chatterjee]

Absolutely loved his style, it's simple yet deep and joyfully imaginative...

[Drew]

Are these poems simple-minded, or am I?

I can't tell if these poems are brilliant tricksters, or if I'm looking for depth that does not exist.

[Michael O'Connor]

Liked it. Ping cought my attention.

[Jebediah]

Each time I thought
no, no, this doesn't work
He'd go and do something that did.