Lynn EmanuelCritiques

These poems are an intriguing challenge. On the face of it -- they are simple, the language and imagery straightforward and easy to grasp. But Emmanuel struggles to push these poems beyond either conventional poetic imagery and sentimentality or modernist abstraction, to some kind of purity where she and the reader can meet on honest if not equal terms. In some of her poems, Emanuel begins by laying out some rich imagery only to systematically un-do it as the poem unfolds. In others, she literally argues with the ghosts of the dead who try to impose meanings she would resist, or strip the poem of meanings and images she would settle on too easily. Sometimes, her striving to negate conventional sentiment comes off as a bit self-indulgent. But she certainly deserves credit for working toward a kind of courageous honesty. And some of the poems are simply perfect. Good poetry should not be easy to read, and this book is no exception. But it is worth the work.