James Schevill (1920–2009)

I don't think I can rate poetry collections. How I feel about poetry rarely is as simple as a 'like' or 'dislike', and I'm not confident enough to decide whether it's 'good' or 'bad'. Poetry can break far more rules than prose can, in my experience.

I did like the conceit of this collection, though: it's a series taken directly from a journal over the winter of 1988 (IIRC), one poem per day. All of them were readable, and made sense to read. I find myself wondering how much they were crafted after the fact, or are straight off the cuff (which would be extremely impressive—there were plenty I don't think were all that great technically, but without any editing at all, would be far stronger).

Many tended to the abstract, but those that stayed with the concrete situations, images were powerful. I even found parts I'd be willing to quote (there are collections that don't even give me that).

Overall, a worthwhile collection… (plus d'informations)