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A Few Things You Should Know About the Weasel
A Few Things You Should Know About the Weasel, by the poet-laureate of Santa Barbara, ranges through philosophy, art and history—both global and domestic—to skillfully chronicle the darkness that is our current age and condition, and the pinpricks of light that may show us the way out.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2010
3 people are currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
David Starkey
40 books8 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
David Starkey directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College.
Among his poetry collections are Starkey's Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey's Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press's Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis next year.
In addition, over the past twenty years he has published more than 400 poems in literary journals such as American Scholar, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cutbank, Faultline, Greensboro Review, The Journal, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Nebraska Review, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, Poetry East, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Poetry Review, Sycamore Review, Texas Review, and Wormwood Review. He has also written two textbooks: Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008) and Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations (McGraw-Hill, 1999). With Paul Willis, he co-edited In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (Iowa, 2005), and he is the editor of Living Blue in the Red States (Nebraska, 2007). Keywords in Creative Writing, which he co-authored with the late Wendy Bishop, was published in 2006 by Utah State University Press.
David Starkey directs the creative writing program at Santa Barbara City College.
Among his poetry collections are Starkey's Book of States (Boson Books, 2007), Adventures of the Minor Poet (Artamo Press, 2007), Ways of Being Dead: New and Selected Poems (Artamo, 2006), David Starkey's Greatest Hits (Pudding House, 2002) and Fear of Everything, winner of Palanquin Press's Spring 2000 chapbook contest. A Few Things You Should Know about the Weasel will be published by the Canadian press Biblioasis next year.
In addition, over the past twenty years he has published more than 400 poems in literary journals such as American Scholar, Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cutbank, Faultline, Greensboro Review, The Journal, Massachusetts Review, Mid-American Review, Nebraska Review, Notre Dame Review, Poet Lore, Poetry East, South Dakota Review, Southern Humanities Review, Southern Poetry Review, Sycamore Review, Texas Review, and Wormwood Review. He has also written two textbooks: Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008) and Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations (McGraw-Hill, 1999). With Paul Willis, he co-edited In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (Iowa, 2005), and he is the editor of Living Blue in the Red States (Nebraska, 2007). Keywords in Creative Writing, which he co-authored with the late Wendy Bishop, was published in 2006 by Utah State University Press.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 12, 2017
Snapshots of times long past and near-present, most witty and clever in tone, some more thoughtful and melancholy. Each of the four sections opens with this omniscient Q&A regarding Western philosophy - different than the others but I liked them.
Highlights for me:
Jamestown
Constantina: 1968
A Very Rich Old Woman (*probably my favorite of the lot)
Triolet: The Zaca Fire
Spring Flowers (*2nd favorite, if we're rating)
Higher Education
Added more Starkey to my TBR. This was great.
Highlights for me:
Jamestown
Constantina: 1968
A Very Rich Old Woman (*probably my favorite of the lot)
Triolet: The Zaca Fire
Spring Flowers (*2nd favorite, if we're rating)
Higher Education
Added more Starkey to my TBR. This was great.
October 22, 2019
The collection of poems “A Few Things You Should Know About The Weasel" by: David Starkey, was just a fun yet serious read. While reading this collection of poems you begin to see his style of poetry is very unique, and he is big on using humor to tell a story of a serious situation that happened in history, philosophy, or anything else really, he is not afraid to look for the truth no matter what people say, because even WWII is not safe from his pursuit for spreading the truth to everyone in his poem “Hitler’s Art".
Now I have never really been that creative and like I thought writing poetry would be hard for me and I was right, but at the same time I have learned to enjoy it and have learned how to respect it in a new light, because as a child you see poems as a fun happy sunshine and rainbows story, but for some it’s a very serious matter like in David Starkey's poem “Hitler’s Art" he says, “I bate to admit it, but he wasn’t bad.” Now what he is saying isn’t that Hitler was a saint but that what he was increasing his “craft". In this poem David portrays Hitler as that of a painter and compares him to things like “St. Stephen’s Spire" and continues by saying how Hitler is a realist and classicist, and says “he painted what his patrons craved and took" and when David says this I can see it how Hitler lead his nation by giving them what they wanted not necessarily making him the end all evil but just another government leader doing what he thinks is right for the men and women of his country. Now this shows how David is always willing to touch a serious subject in order for people to see all sides to the story and how he portrays not as seriously as other would, because who would portray Hitler as a painter like David did.
Now David isn’t all about history , art, philosophy, and such, he can be pretty personal in his poems such as his poem “My Parents' Bedroom”. In this poem he talks about rummaging through his parents room not finding anything that would be obscene in anyway, he says “Everything had it’s place,” when he continues giving details about the pantsuits and ironed jeans you can begin to image a clean room with happy family behind the scenes and he describes how the window looks out too the driveway where he parks his bike once he is finish with delivering papers, and he later states “I’d lock myself out, and when they didn’t answer the door, I climbed the roof, tapped the glass politely.” Now what happened after he tapped the glass is where this poem turns with just a couple of lines you can feel fear in your heart as you read the lines “Dad stood there with a pistol ready, he later said, to fire” this would strike fear into anyone’s heart and it is how David is able to stir these emotions from us with just a few lines and after what seemed to be a normal happy poem even from the title.
David Starkey a constitutional historian and a radio and television presenter, who would have imagined that this man would create a book of such diverse poetry and would bring out emotions, make you think, and reveal more about history that people may not have know before. This collection of David Starkey’s poetry is a fun and wonderful read that you just can’t help but read more than once and when it comes to suggesting this book I would say 5 stars because even if your not a big fan of reading or poems this collection will still entertain you.
Now I have never really been that creative and like I thought writing poetry would be hard for me and I was right, but at the same time I have learned to enjoy it and have learned how to respect it in a new light, because as a child you see poems as a fun happy sunshine and rainbows story, but for some it’s a very serious matter like in David Starkey's poem “Hitler’s Art" he says, “I bate to admit it, but he wasn’t bad.” Now what he is saying isn’t that Hitler was a saint but that what he was increasing his “craft". In this poem David portrays Hitler as that of a painter and compares him to things like “St. Stephen’s Spire" and continues by saying how Hitler is a realist and classicist, and says “he painted what his patrons craved and took" and when David says this I can see it how Hitler lead his nation by giving them what they wanted not necessarily making him the end all evil but just another government leader doing what he thinks is right for the men and women of his country. Now this shows how David is always willing to touch a serious subject in order for people to see all sides to the story and how he portrays not as seriously as other would, because who would portray Hitler as a painter like David did.
Now David isn’t all about history , art, philosophy, and such, he can be pretty personal in his poems such as his poem “My Parents' Bedroom”. In this poem he talks about rummaging through his parents room not finding anything that would be obscene in anyway, he says “Everything had it’s place,” when he continues giving details about the pantsuits and ironed jeans you can begin to image a clean room with happy family behind the scenes and he describes how the window looks out too the driveway where he parks his bike once he is finish with delivering papers, and he later states “I’d lock myself out, and when they didn’t answer the door, I climbed the roof, tapped the glass politely.” Now what happened after he tapped the glass is where this poem turns with just a couple of lines you can feel fear in your heart as you read the lines “Dad stood there with a pistol ready, he later said, to fire” this would strike fear into anyone’s heart and it is how David is able to stir these emotions from us with just a few lines and after what seemed to be a normal happy poem even from the title.
David Starkey a constitutional historian and a radio and television presenter, who would have imagined that this man would create a book of such diverse poetry and would bring out emotions, make you think, and reveal more about history that people may not have know before. This collection of David Starkey’s poetry is a fun and wonderful read that you just can’t help but read more than once and when it comes to suggesting this book I would say 5 stars because even if your not a big fan of reading or poems this collection will still entertain you.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2020
The collection of poems “A Few Things You Should Know About The Weasel" by: David Starkey, was just a fun yet serious read. While reading this collection of poems you begin to see his style of poetry is very unique, and he is big on using humor to tell a story of a serious situation that happened in history, philosophy, or anything else really and seems to use many different styles of poetry, but it seems he mostly writes in free form poetry. He is not afraid to look for the truth no matter what people say, because even WWII is not safe from his pursuit for spreading the truth to everyone in his poem “Hitler’s Art".
Now in David Starkey's poem “Hitler’s Art" he says, “I hate to admit it, but he wasn’t bad” (1) Now what he is saying isn’t that Hitler was a saint but that what he was furthering his “craft" in politics. In this poem David portrays Hitler as that of a painter and compares him to things like “St. Stephen’s Spire" and continues by saying how Hitler is a realist and classicist, and says “he painted what his patrons craved and took" and when David says this I can see it how Hitler led his nation by giving them what they wanted not necessarily making him the end all evil but just another government leader doing what he thinks is right for the men and women of his country. Now this shows how David is always willing to touch a serious subject in order for people to see all sides to the story and how he portrays not as seriously as other would, because who would portray Hitler as a painter like David did.
Now while reading David Starkey’s collection of poems I got to see many interesting ways that poetry can be written or more precisely preserved. In this collection Starkey separates each part of his book in four sections Will, Form, War, and Eternity. Also in the beginning of each section there is a part called Q&A and it gives you a bit of an idea about what David Starkey is doing in the poems of each section.
Now the collection starts with Will and in the QA and it talks about will as something that we all have from birth but is not seen the same by all. In his poems he writes about both sides and one poem is “A Few Things You Should Know About the Weasel” and in this poem it reads “A group of weasels // is called a gang. Skilled in medicine, / they revive their freshly killed young / with herbs. They carry the dead // they cannot save on their backs / and bury them in weasel cemeteries.” (6-11). Now these lines of poetry shows a good example of the instinctual part of will that was talked about in the Q&A. Now the other part is shown greatly in a poem called “Waiting for a Train, 1929” and in this poem it shows the idea of free will that is the other half of the Will section. “But this bucko / from Cheyenne gets too drunk and gropes / his dame, the two jaspers from Medicine Bow / start a ruckus and the owner decides / to close the place down early that evening, / even though it’s Saturday night”. Now this is just an example of how this whole book goes and continues like this in the other 3 sections Form, War, and Eternity.
So in this collection of David Starkey’s poetry is a fun and wonderful read that you just can’t help but read more than once and when it comes to suggesting this book I would say 5 stars because even if you are not a big fan of reading or poems this collection will still entertain you.
Now in David Starkey's poem “Hitler’s Art" he says, “I hate to admit it, but he wasn’t bad” (1) Now what he is saying isn’t that Hitler was a saint but that what he was furthering his “craft" in politics. In this poem David portrays Hitler as that of a painter and compares him to things like “St. Stephen’s Spire" and continues by saying how Hitler is a realist and classicist, and says “he painted what his patrons craved and took" and when David says this I can see it how Hitler led his nation by giving them what they wanted not necessarily making him the end all evil but just another government leader doing what he thinks is right for the men and women of his country. Now this shows how David is always willing to touch a serious subject in order for people to see all sides to the story and how he portrays not as seriously as other would, because who would portray Hitler as a painter like David did.
Now while reading David Starkey’s collection of poems I got to see many interesting ways that poetry can be written or more precisely preserved. In this collection Starkey separates each part of his book in four sections Will, Form, War, and Eternity. Also in the beginning of each section there is a part called Q&A and it gives you a bit of an idea about what David Starkey is doing in the poems of each section.
Now the collection starts with Will and in the QA and it talks about will as something that we all have from birth but is not seen the same by all. In his poems he writes about both sides and one poem is “A Few Things You Should Know About the Weasel” and in this poem it reads “A group of weasels // is called a gang. Skilled in medicine, / they revive their freshly killed young / with herbs. They carry the dead // they cannot save on their backs / and bury them in weasel cemeteries.” (6-11). Now these lines of poetry shows a good example of the instinctual part of will that was talked about in the Q&A. Now the other part is shown greatly in a poem called “Waiting for a Train, 1929” and in this poem it shows the idea of free will that is the other half of the Will section. “But this bucko / from Cheyenne gets too drunk and gropes / his dame, the two jaspers from Medicine Bow / start a ruckus and the owner decides / to close the place down early that evening, / even though it’s Saturday night”. Now this is just an example of how this whole book goes and continues like this in the other 3 sections Form, War, and Eternity.
So in this collection of David Starkey’s poetry is a fun and wonderful read that you just can’t help but read more than once and when it comes to suggesting this book I would say 5 stars because even if you are not a big fan of reading or poems this collection will still entertain you.
September 5, 2025
A delightful collection of often humorous and insightful verse. The philosophical introduction to each section does little besides establishing the book's parodic credentials, but in the actual poetry there is plenty of interesting diction, rhythm, and observation.
October 28, 2012
I'm disappointed. There are a few great, deeply meaningful poems in here and at times it is really witty and bold. However, the overall package is just weird, dark, and disjointed. Some of the pieces seem inane and the Q&A pieces seem so out of place.
March 24, 2011
The only poems I wasn't keen on were the Q&A ones. Otherwise this was terrific.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews