The Good Kiss: Poems

by George Bilgere

The Good Kiss is a collection of poems dealing loosely with the subjects of divorce, sexuality, and American culture from the 1950s to today. The poems vary in tone from the fairly serious to the reflective and meditative, to the wryly comic. Perhaps it is fair to say that this range of tones exists within many of the individual poems, and is their defining characteristic. Poems like What I Want, and The Good Kiss are good examples of these quirky, rather unexpected tonal shifts and blendings.

Genres: Poetry

61 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

About the author

Billy Collins once commented that poet George Bilgere "has shown that imaginative wonders and deep emotional truths can be achieved with plain, colloquial American speech." Bilgere has done so in his six collections of poetry, most recently "Imperial" (Pitt Poetry Series). His numerous awards include the May Swenson Poetry Award and a Pushcart Prize. A professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, he is also host of the public radio program WORDPLAY, an offbeat mix of poetry and comedy.

Reviews

[Peycho Kanev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jennifer

I step naked into the backyard
Under a full moon
And piss on the rich soil
At the edge of the flower bed,

Feeling both Whitmanesque and doglike,
Mystical and silly.

When I was a kid, my friends and I
Would pee together, crossing
Yellow swords,
Seeing who could go longest and farthest.

And over the years,
Three or four women have asked shyly
If they could watch
What might have seemed to them
The essential male act: brutish
And comic, complexly hydraulic,
Full of archaic territoriality—

The one act of the penis
Over which we have more control
Than they do.

Maybe that’s why,
When I walked home a little buzzed
From a Denver bar one winter night
With a girl I hardly knew
And desperately needing a convenient tree,

She took me in her cold hand
And wrote her own name in the snow.


Elegy for the LP

There, in the twilight,
A long-necked bird
Lowers its head
And dark beak
To drink
So deeply
From the flowing river.

When at last it looks up
To see me watching,
Saddened and amazed,
The woods grow silent again.
For a long time,
We both sit very still.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have found another poet I adore. He is tender and biting, often in the same poem. Each poem accomplishes so much! And for me, they do it well. I can sleep better at night knowing that this poet is observing and reflecting on his world. I will save other poems by this poet for bad days in the future. Thank you George Bilgere.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I struggled to find an alternative word, but in the end, "accessible" is an apt word to describe Bilgere's poetry. Although this word has come to be associated with negative connotations in the poetry community, I use it as a high, sincere compliment. Bilgere captures the essence of everyday life in his narrative vignettes. He is a master at describing a personal situation or feeling and then, in a turn, making it universal.

"Laundry" starts with a description Of Bilgere's mother hanging clothes on an outdoor line:
I watch from my blanket on the grass
As my mother's blouses lift and billow,
My father's white work shirts
Wave their empty sleeves at me

And then, in the second stanza, the turn that zaps:
It is mid-century, and the future lies
Just beyond the white borders
Of this snapshot; soon that wind
Will get the better of her
And her marriage.

[Emmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry. Two of my favorites included in this collection, too-- "Jennifer" and "What I Want".

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

One wonderful poem here and a couple other good ones. Most everything else is solid although not necessarily inspiring. A rather flimsy book of only 61 pages. I like Bilgere's easy style, however, he can be a bit whiney. Certainly worth reading, especially if you can grab a copy at a good price.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

great observer and great voice

[Cora · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-1/2 stars

[Kenton Yee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up intended to look at a few poems and I ended up reading it cover to cover. These poems are mesmerizing and true.

[Here's Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent poetry collection, capturing the essence of the tumult of emotion involved with the aftermath of divorce.

[Mary Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

2024 Sealey Challenge #12

George Bilgere is so eminently readable, but still filled with surprises. Great way to end the 2024 Sealey Challenge.

[Mike Hammer · Rating 3 out of 5]

another good collection, straightforward poems that analyze every day life and there r some good lines but not outstanding, not enough to make me search out his other work

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Bilgere, The Good Kiss (The University of Akron Press, 2002)

Haywire, Bilgere's 2006 book, was very high up my best reads of 2010 list (“Every other poem or so Bilgere cranks up the wonder machine and lets fly with another piece that varies the theme somewhat” --review 6Aug10 ish), with the added note that 2010 saw me reading the highest average quality stuff I have so far this century. It is an impressive book indeed. The Good Kiss, his 2002 offering, is not quite up to the same standard, but that's kind of like comparing Family Plot to Lifeboat in the corpus of Alfred Hitchcock; you may not think it's at the top of the heap, but that doesn't mean it's not better than 90% of what you're going to read in the year you pick it up.

“Was man descended from the apes?
We didn't much care, although the speeches
For God or monkey banged on the rafters
Of the musty theater with all the passion
our reedy voices could muster. To us
It seemed enough that Heather's breasts
Nodded their secret affirmation
Of the world's essential injustice...”
(“Inherit the Wind”)

Bilgere's knack for coming up with just the right blend of loose-limbed diction and out-there word choice makes for a winning combination in pretty much every poem in this volume; if I sound less than enthused about it when comparing it to Haywire, the simple truth to be found there is that I sound less than enthused about, well, damn near anything when I compare it to Haywire. Make no mistake about it, this is excellent stuff and well worth reading. ****

[Sarai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was initially drawn to George Bilgere’s book “A Good Kiss”, because of the interesting title. I had already read Bilgere’s work, so I assumed this one would be as rich and inviting as all of his others—I was not disappointed. Bilgere has the unique ability to blend humor with his handling of serious topics. Even when not using humor to highlight the gravity of a subject, Bilgere still somehow finds a pleasant balance in his works. I attribute this to the language that he uses, as well as his heavy reliance on nostalgia to evoke emotions in the reader. The very first poem in this book is titled “Like Riding a Bicycle”, and through his emotional phrasing, Bilgere touches on the exact feelings of innocence that a child that age has. He couples that with stories of his father, who, although he seems like a good parent at first, is revealed to be a workaholic and a drunk. Bilgere hits those points without making them feel unnecessarily heavy—they feel complex, and deep, but never overbearing. Another of his poems, “Jennifer”, speaks in great detail about peeing in the snow. Although the topic itself could be considered crude, Bilgere handles it with delicacy, focusing less on the physical act, and more on the experiences in which that situation occurred, letting the emotions and wit take over even while describing such an act. Bilgere has a talent for letting the feeling of the poem take over when he writes.

[Texx Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this book the poetry deals with issues of sexuality, divorce, and relationships. Again Bilgere shows himself to be a powerful poet. In the poem that gives the book its title there is a scene of intimacy where he is with a woman and he writes:

under each of them was the saddest
tenderest little smile of a scar
like two sad smiles of apology.

The woman explains that she "had them done" to keep her husband from leaving her, but in the end he left anyway. The speaker's response is:

. . . my lips touched
the little wounds he had left her,
as if a kiss, a good kiss, could heal them . . ."

Maybe honest depections of one's own sexual thoughts and acts would NOT be something they would want to read, but for me, I hear the honesty, the ring of truth, and I'm blessed by the insights he leads me toward.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book by Bilgere once I realized that a number of the poems I have really liked over the past few years were his (yes, I am a nerd who has three "poem-of-the-day" email subscriptions). Anyway, I always prefer a poem that has some sort of narrative, and Bilgere is really good at crafting a story. Most of the works in this volume deal with relationships - love, divorce, sex - and everything in between. Some are heartbreakingly melancholy, and even those that come across as more upbeat still have a tinge of sadness about them. I will definitely read more by him.

[Alarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable book, but not as compelling to me as Haywire. In other words, Bilgere is getting better and better. This volume might be cathartic to someone going through a bitter break up. It's Bilgere's usual mix of hilarity with the poignant.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bilgere was my poetry teacher last year at an art's camp, and it was here that I first heard of him. His poems are witty and brilliantly honest and fresh. He was originally 'found' by Billy Collins, who offered him advanced praise. Reading his work, you can see why.

[Antonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable collection. The poet is new to me and I'm looking forward to more. He has three other books, the earliest of which seems to be out of print. I'll be looking to buy the 2 more recent ones. And hope to return here to review.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much post-divorce angst in this book, but I like his poetry.
I reread this book in 2020. I still feel that there is too much pot-divorce angst her, but at least one poem touched me deeply, and another was laugh out loud funny. Not bad for such a thin volume of poetry.

[Candace Haskell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally really enjoy George Bilgere but this collection - focusing on sad divorces and his feelings about them- left me sad and eager to finish the poems. Usually I fold down the tip of the page of my favorite poems in a book - and I turned down none this time.

[The University of Akron Press]

The Good Kiss: Poems (Akron Series in Poetry) by George Bilgere (2003)

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially liked Like Riding a Bicycle, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Stupid, Threepenny Opera, The Good Kiss.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked "The Return of Odysseus" so I thought I'd read more...it was just alright for me. Some kind of grossed me out...