Poetry Books

I love this book. I use to read this book to my children when they were little. Now my children have children, and I wanted them to also enjoy this fun book. To me, this represents all my childhood memories of Halloween. I love the illustrations! I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Halloween.

Great poems for Halloween. Fun to read aloud with one child or a group of children. I used it in my classroom for many years. I bought this copy to donate to the library at my church.

my mom enjoys telling this story:

when i was about four, she checked "it's halloween" out at our local small-town library and brought it home. i made her read it every night, memorizing every word, and if she tried to skip a page, i'd call her on it.

when it came time to return the book, she couldn't find it and had to pay for a new copy for the library. some time later, she was cleaning my room and discovered where i'd stashed my copy under my bed.

greatest halloween book, and among the greatest children's books in general, ever.

I still have the copy my mother gave to me in 1978!! It is my favorite children's book, and it should be a part of every home library. The illustrations are great, and the little poems are so catchy.

It is the best Halloween book ever. It has just the right amount of creepiness to get kids really excited about Halloween. A fun book with simple rhyme schemes and memorable illustrations, it will keep kids interested. I'm 27 and I still love it.

Authors k.t. Frankovich and David Taub were invited to be guest speakers at the Florida Writers Association's 1st Annual convention/Royal Palm Book Awards. It took place from Friday 25th through Sunday 27th, October at the Orlando/Altamonte Springs Hilton Hotel. They gave a one hour Poetry Presentation (on Saturday), which preceded the Royal Palm Book Awards dinner (the Book Awards took place later at 10pm).

125 guests, which included some of the 400 FWA members, publishers, editors, agents, book store reps, etc., attended the entire evening event.

Approximately 150 titles had been submitted, over the past 6 months, for just about every genre of writing imaginable. The 'judging system' had been incredibly carefully devised, whereby copies of submissions were sent out literally all over the US - every judge had no idea who the other judges were, and each one had no connection / relationship to anyone belonging to the FWA - its members or the FWA Board members, Officers, Directors, etc.

The 'scoring system' by each judge, for each book, was also very detailed - a list of criteria requiring a 'rating' for each aspect of the book, effectively giving an overall score book / per judge.

The judging took place over several weeks, and all the rating sheets were then returned to a panel of the Directors, and collated by them PLUS overseen and notarised by an attorney! The collating of each book's scores, alone, took 17 hours! A small number of genre categories had been pre-determined, so that each genre category would have its own award - a Winner and Runner-up per category. THEN, finally, an overall "Best Book of the Year" award.

For the Poetry category, there were approximately 40 books entered. Language of Souls walked away with the category's Best Poetry Book award!

Then, the FWA's President and founder, Glenda Ivey, prior to the Grand Finale of naming the overall "Best Book of the Year" winner, announced that the overall winning book had achieved something wholly unexpected by the 'collating panel' - Namely that, while the overall winner had 'simply' needed to have the highest score of all the entrants, it had achieved a flawless 100% maximum score for EVERY criteria by EVERY judge. And so, this obviously can never be beaten - but only ever equalled - in their future annual book awards.

Frankovich and Taub were stunned into absolute silence, when it was announced that the "Book of the Year" winner was........ Language of Souls.

In a later interview, Frankovich commented, "While we are obviously elated that Language of Souls won this award, what has stunned us the most is that a poetry book out-scored every other genre."

This iz good but this iz not az gud az Flubblebop

Yim yam widdley woooo!

This book, consisting of the poems of k.t. Frankovich, Ruth Solomon and David Taub, is beautifully presented with illustrations by Freydoon Rassouli.

The poems are positive and hopeful. And they are written in a form that can be easily understood. I enjoyed them immensely.

Three super-poets,Solomon,Taub and Frankovich ,plus the artistic mind of Rassouli... Swept away to the serenity of Taub,ripped to realities harshness ,Solomon (of course) Frankovich's ,from tears to fantasy cropped with Rassouli's surrealizm,,, what's not to like?

It seems, from reading the other reviews, this is a poetry book spreading around the world. I am sharing my copy with some of my friends and the comments are all the same. "I never knew books were produced like this anymore!" It is like an oasis of beautifully readable poetry in the desert of obscure and esoteric writing, which has pervaded the poetry world over the past decade. I was lucky to find this as a result of reading the autobiography by one of the 3 poets - k.t. Frankovich and her book, 'Where Heavens Meet'.

Claudia Emerson, Late Wife (Louisiana State University Press, 2005)

I've had very little patience with review-writing for the past six weeks or so, and thus I let this review go unconscionably long (I finished the book on April 30th and am writing this on June 10th). Thus, I've forgotten most of the phrases I was turning over in my mind. I do know, however, they all involved heaping a great deal of praise on Late Wife, Claudia Emerson's most recent book and the winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. I often find myself wondering what the judges were thinking giving the prize to book X instead of book Y; not in this case. The details may be a little fuzzy in my head this far after the fact, but the book itself is pure gold, that much I remember. Emerson has a wonderful eye for detail and that all-too-rare quality in a poet of not letting the story get in the way of the description:

"I'd run that course/so many times I imagined myself/a goat encircling an invisible stake//of the baseball diamond's off-season/desolation, scoreboard blank before/the lightening sky." ("The Practice Cage")

That, right there, is some language, folks. This is a book you want to read. Likely to be on my ten best reads of the year list. **** ½

I read about this collection by Claudia Emerson on a list of recent Pulitzer winners, and its marital themes appealed to me, so I gave it a try. These poems seem deceptively simple upon first reading, but as I've reread and lingered over them, they have grown deep roots. There is indeed a lot going on under the surface here.

The first two sections of this slim volume offer restrained yet poignant snapshots of a marriage viewed in retrospect--domestic moments that serve as subtle metaphors for a failing relationship. For instance, Emerson describes various homes that she and her husband occupied--houses that appear sound on the surface, but that include occupants like spiders, bees, bats, and termites, suggesting a marriage that is internally unsound. "Natural History Exhibits," for example, describes the newlywed poet opening up her silverware drawer to find a coiled snake. Rather than killing it, she hesitates and eases the drawer shut, letting the snake exit the way it came, but washing "every fork, spoon, and knife" afterwards. Her misgivings and her attempt to overlook the event mirror her handling of her early marital regrets. Another recurring image involves trapped birds--an orphaned cedar waxwing, a hawk caught in a batter's cage, and, in "A Bird in the House," the poet herself as a bird... the displaced "late wife" that her ex-husband's new wife chases out.

In the collection's final section, Emerson opens a window on her current relationship--one haunted by the ghost of her beloved's deceased "late wife," yet ultimately hopeful. In "Leave No Trace," a conscientious hiking trip becomes a meaningful metaphor for the subtle footprints we can't help but leave in each others' lives, yet Emerson's eyes are fixed confidently on her companion "on the trail just ahead."

This lovely, empathic collection is well worth a careful reading.

This author knows how to capture the nuances of life that most of us can relate to. I found that I could not put this book down. I will be re-reading this approachable "story" many times.

Claudia Emerson's precise use of words to convey images and to stimulate reflection is an artform. The simplicity of the poems and their ease in reading them mask the depth that is in each. This is key to a poet's success. The ability to appeal to all audiences by conveying a clear picture, yet not giving away too much, allows for the preservation of the reader's ability to use their own imagination. Imagination is the precursor for reflection. When room is made for reflection, each poem takes on a life of their own and the experience becomes unique for each reader and a connection is made. Connection is what poetry is all about. Not only did I make strong connections with these poems, but I truly enjoyed them just for the pure pleasure of reading them. The descriptions and images were so beautifully conjured through the artistic use of words that like admiring a great painting, they encourage you to be artistic as well.

I was a student of Claudia Emerson's at Mary Washignton College, and find her ability to honest and genuine in the classroom translates in her work. I remember her discussing "Late Wife" just as her previous collection "Pinion" was released. It is exciting to see the conversations she had among her students, now present in the art. My favorite poem is her metaphoric look at the batting cage and the hawk escpaing. Perhaps, because I have run around the fields myself, or maybe, because I relate to the universality of feeling like exhibition, and desiring to be the hawk with its talons and break free. She is a wonderful poet, and I look forward to reading every word she writes.

First: Balzac, even in translation, is a literary giant. He paints vivid, often dark pictures of 'society' and adds no detail in jest. There is meaning everywhere.

You can read Colonel Chabert in a couple hours, dwell on it for several days after, and be done. This is a wonderful translation from the French; with it, you can mine most of Balzac's intentions without having to consult a companion piece or Balzac guru.

The story is all about life, death, and "social" identity. Others have summarized the story well, but I will refrain. For this one, all you need is a solid literary mind and a few hours. In this edition, Balzac is direct and beautiful; from the dead rising to gateways between worlds to the lamentable futility of morality for its own sake, there is no want for vivid description.

"Colonel Chabert" is one of Honore de Balzac's volumes from his omnibus work, "The Human Comedy." The Colonel is a comic figure in and old military great coat and a wig who is ridiculed by young legal workers at the beginning of the novel. But, the joke is on the clerks, because Chabert is a war hero of the Napoleonic era who was given up for dead on a battlefield at Eylau. This translation from the French by Carol Grosman tells the story of the old soldier's resurrection in contemporary jargon. The novel is relevant today considering the service of soldiers in many wars continuing in our world. What happens to these heroes when wars end, or more accurately, shift to new fronts? Balzac paints the portrait of one old colonel who remains honorable and as a consequence seals his fate. The translation is very readable and the short novel is brief "scene from private life." The work will stimulate further interest in the monumental work of Balzac who had a relatively short life (1799-1850).

...of a great Balzac novella. Ms. Cosman captures the rigorous, logical quality of Balzac's prose - most translators get lost in unidiomatic wordiness. This 100 page novella showcases the Master's comfort with legal matters, his profound understanding of "the fang and the claw" and features at its center the incomparable Derville, Balzac's great, recurring lawyer character. I usually recommend Pere Goriot for first-time Balzac readers because of the rich connections between that novel and many other Balzac works - but I am hard pressed to imagine a better one-course meal than this rendering of Colonel Chabert by Ms. Cosman. I certainly plan to read her version of The Girl with the Golden Eyes.

One of the greatest novelists of all time, Balzac was most at home in the Paris of Post-Napoleonic Paris. In a time when the middle class was showing its strength and starting to reach towards the aristocracy, Balzac shows just how selfish and grubby and greedy humans can be in attaining and how treacherous they can be in keeping their all important upward mobility.

Colonel Chabert is a man disfigured in the Napoleonic Wars who was left for dead on a battlefield. After digging his way out of a mass grave, he finds that he has no legal right to his title or his massive estate. Nobody will believe his true identity. For ten longe years he goes about trying to communicate his plight to anyone who will listen. They only see a crazy bum, and his wife rebuffs his letters. She already has a new husband and kids. Finally Chabert is able to convince a lawyer named Dervilles to accept his case, namely that of reclaiming his title, lands, and wife. The problem is that noone is really interested in his life being resurrected. Most people would rather that he remained dead. So begins the ludicrous battle of a man against the law to prove his own existence.

This short but great novel, or novella, is a tragic take on the world's thirst for social status and the judgement by visuals that our society is only too guilty of to this day. If it walks like a bum, talks like a bum, it must be a bum. Colonel Chabert has such a hard time convincing people of his identity because of how they perceive him. It sounds echoes of Frankenstein in that a good man is reduced to a monster when all he really needs is love. The fact that even his wife wishes he were dead just drives home the isolated suffering of the book. As in all Balzac novels, you feel a world moving under the mantle of the book. The Human Comedy of Balzac is one of the crowning achievements of literature and ranks right up there with Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy.

Balzac, one of the greatest writers who ever lived, did not trip up with this one. I read it with great pleasure and conclude, as people so often say, that the movie based on the story did not equal the original. Ever the cynic (some might say 'the realist') Balzac portrays here the efforts of a noble-minded soldier, who rose from an orphanage to serve his country under Napoleon in Egypt and eastern Europe, only to reap the all-too-common fate of dedicated and true warriors---to be forgotten and ignored. Death (which he accepted) might have seized him, but he found a living death, a denial of his sanity and identity, as the reward of his service. Reported killed at the battle of Eylau, against the Russians, after a heroic action, the soldier literally crawls from his grave to a kind of shadowy survival. In his earlier life, Colonel Chabert had raised a woman to his own status, but now finds that she is unwilling to let others learn of her origins and does not want to recognize that he is, in fact, her long lost husband. Honestly thinking she was widowed, she married a highborn aristocrat who knew nothing of her humble beginnings.

The tale is one of greed, intrigue, loyalty and disloyalty. As usual, Balzac manages to cast a light, pitiless and bright, on every rotten corner of the human condition, while offering a few inspiring examples in contrast. Every detail of a lawyer's life in 19th century Paris is scrutinized, every glimpse of urban dairyman or elite country squirehood rings true. No wonder I admire him so much, no wonder I have no hesitation in urging you to read COLONEL CHABERT and any other volume of Balzac you can lay your hands on.

To read Mary Oliver's The Leaf and the Cloud is to be swept up in a journey that is both intimate and universal at the same time. At once describing, with breathtaking lucidity, the epic beauty and staggering complexity of nature, then suddenly referring to her own humanity with poignant inquisitions, Oliver traverses internal and external environments in an elegant interplay that is, quite simply, addictive.
Not just a "Nature Poet" or "Neo-Romantic", Oliver moves beyond poetry that merely observes nature or draws quaint metaphors from its form, to a new level that celebrates humanity and nature as two parts of an indefinable, mysterious and ultimately beautiful whole.
Their is so much joy in the way in which Oliver describes the world that it is contagious, and you will forever view your surroundings differently as a result of reading this book. It isn't just her exquisite grasp of nature that makes this book so pleasurable, however, it is also the way in which she unravels her own character and story within the natural environment that makes you keep turning the pages.
This was my first encounter with Oliver's work, but certainly not the last. Highly recommended.

In this poem, Mary Oliver walks us through the journey of life and calls
on us to pay attention and see, smell and hear. She asks death to "unstring
my bones,let me be not one thing but all things..."

In these days of violence and blaming of actions on past grievances, Oliver
says of her dead parents,
"I give them-one, two, three, four- the kiss of courtesy
of sweet thanks,
of anger, of good luck in the deep earth.
May they sleep well. May they soften.

But I will not give them the kiss of complicity.
I will not give them the responsibility for my life."

Powerful, strong words.

Mary Oliver is a magnificent, aware voice, speaking in a deep, almost spiritual way. She transforms daily life, a drive, a walk, a look across the fields, into magical, sensitive,moments of awe.

Few works stand across generations lighting the best American writers. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and Mary Oliver's The Leaf and The Cloud, are two. The difference is that Oliver is alive and working today. I rejoice in her bravery to write the real work, that because it is real, lush, sensual, and drives deep into an open reader's soul like the tendrils of exuberant vines, will likely endure for future generations as long as humans do. Remember that Whitman wasn't completely embraced in his era either, and many opinion makers expecting whatever they were expecting, turned on him as did James Harlan, Secretary of the Interior, after the Civil War.

The best advice is to form your own opinion. Borrow a copy of Mary Oliver's The Leaf and The Cloud, read it. If you respond to it as I have, you will be buying your own copy of a living American legend.

Mary Oliver is amazing. I read this book because it was recommended by my English Lit. prof., and then I loved it and had to go out and buy it. Mary Oliver literally wrote the book on free verse poetry (see, "The Poetry Handbook" by the same author). The way the words flow is beautiful. Even if you don't really like modern poetry, I think you'll fall in love with this long poem.

I give this book as gifts to friends who are expecting their first baby. This poetry is easy to read to the kids, but even more it will teach you great and simple things every parent should know. I also recommend this book to survivors of trauma to help them re-parent or change their understanding of what parents should have been like.

This book should be handed out to every mom and dad the day their baby is delivered. It has the simplest yet most profound advice any parent could receive. I have given this book to new parents sinc it was published and I am disheartened that it is no longer in publication. Let's send letters to get it back into circulation. It is by far the BEST! Sincerely Cecilee

This book is awesome and should be owned by every Mother in the world and Father, for that matter. Children don't always tell you what they feel, even when they know, and this book gives you things to think about. No mother can put it down once they begin to read it.

This books offers wonderful insight to becoming a more attentive parent. Through real life events, the author represents a particular view which parents can tap into and gain a greater understanding into their child world. Ruth Reardon's (author) perspectives easily surpasses many theoretical parenting books available today.

I am a psychotherapist dedicated to helping families function well. I so often hear from parents, "Why don't children come with instruction books?!" Well, this is as close as you can get to that. Learning to listen well. It is incredibly insightful and well-written. I recommend it to all the parents I work with and give it as a baby shower gift to all the new parents I know. It is an excellent must read.

I read this to my class. They loved it. It is filled with humor and elicited many laughs from my students. They also reread the book on their own which always makes a teacher smile. I will put this book on my list to read every year.

My 6th grade students loved this book and I must admit, I loved it, too! Fabulous!!

My first-grader begged us for this book after having read it repeatedly at school. It's still one of her very favorites. The poems are silly and witty and fun to read aloud, and the illustrations are funny as well. Books like this really help young children develop a love for words and for reading.

This is a great rhyming book for students. It seems really relateable for children because of the content that it is written about. I was able to relate to it by remembering my school days and I found the poems to be somewhat funny.

If you want to feel less alone in the real world of honest feelings, if you want to get in touch with true feelings, if you want to understand your emotions and explore your guilt and really dig deeper than sentiment--Carol Diggery Shields is the poet for you. Her voice is more original and her psychological depth deeper than most contemporary poets. She makes you feel less alone with your inner life. There is no sentimental frosting here. This is accessible and original poetry with a crafty use of language, a flowing free verse. I've spent my life reading poetry, and I find this poet thoroughly satisfying. Spend an evening or a morning or both with her LUNCH MONEY AND OTHER POEMS ABOUT SCHOOL and you will be moved and amazed at the original angles she takes on truth and human feelings and relationships. This is a poet of psychological, philosphical realization--a thinker who really probes the inner life with grace of expression.

At present I'm researching the way poets use structure as meaning in poetry. This excellent book not only explains the different poetic forms from poetic traditions from around the world, it also gives details of their history. The book is organised so information can be found quickly. The only drawback I found is the small font it uses.

This book is comprehensive and probably essential for the study of poetry. But there are several serious problems. First, there is only a completely useless Table of Contents and no index. Yes, it is an encyclopedia and the entries are in alphabetical order but the subjects are very broad (Symbol, Twentieth-Century Poetics) making it necessary to scan several pages in several different subject areas without knowing if you have missed the poem or poet you are looking for. How will you know to look for comments on The Illiad under the heading of Simile or that the subject heading Intuition contains a discussion of the Neo-Platonists? Scanning pages for a specific piece of information is difficult because the print is tiny. The Preface and Acknowledgments are in big print and then they switch to very small print for the remainder of the book. You will need lots of time and a magnifying glass to take full advantage of this book.

I have very little to add to the laudatory reviews. Some found the print too small, but for me it was not a problem - I am used to using reference works with smallish print.

I just got my copy and found a lot of fascinating information on the ode which I didn't know. From what I've read so far, the topical discussions are excellent, and there are ample biographical references for the major and some of the minor entries. All in all, it is a great resource for student, poet, poetry lover, and critic.

one of the three books that any student or writer of poetry needs to own, besides a good dictionary. (The other two are Pound's "ABCs of Reading" and Shapiro's "Primer.") Answers questions & points you in the right direction for more. Once you open it, you'll wonder how you got by without it.

This is the most comprehensive and informative encylopedia of poetry and poetics that I know. It at times seems so comprehensive and detailed as to make understanding of its entries possible. It is in fact so overwhelming sometimes that it confuses by telling much more than I, at least, need or want to know. It seems to me in a way a very academic work, wonderful for critics but probably of very little use in inspiring to poetry. So much knowledge about poetry is not necessarily what poetry is.

Gustavo Perez-Firmat's memoir is a heartfelt read.
For anyone who has straddled the hyphenated word Cuban-American and thought themselves as a CBA (Cuban-born Americans) or ABC(American-bred Cubans), this book is a secret treaure.
Perez-Firmat takes the reader on a cultural literary journey as he tries to come to terms with exactly what and where home is. Is it the place you were born (Cuba), the place you were exiled to, (Miami) or the city that you find yourself most at peace with (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) Perez-Firmat offers a tender philosophical introspective read on all the above.
The book took me to the corner merchants and restaurants of la saguesera to the academia of Chapel Hill, where Perez-Firmat later settled in as he pursued a master's in literature. Or as he puts it, "Living with an American spouse, dealing with American stepchildren, and speaking English at home, I am much more aware of my nationality that I ever was before." (p.171)
His memories of his family dynamics (two grandmothers sharing a two-bedroom with him, his brother and their parents) will be relatable to anyone with a large Hispanic family or to fans of PBS 70s show "Que Pasa USA?"
But his take on his "romance with teaching" really resonated with me.
I enjoyed reading the often humorous tales of this professor in the classrom as he teaches college students about Spanish literature. In one scene, Perez-Firmat goes on to describe his philosophy for teaching, which can serve as a lesson to many aspiring teachers.
"I'm a successful teacher to the extent that I can get my students to fall for me...In a deep sense, I am the material...Like other love affairs, teaching has its own pace and moods, its good and bad days, its coded language, its rewarding or bitter conclusion. Sometimes you walk into a class and it's love at first sight."

This book made me come to terms with what being a Cuban born American means to me. Perez Firmat shares his own personal and sometimes painful experiences with the readers. In doing so he made it easier to define and understand my own experience as a Cuban-American who loves the United States yet has a yearning to gain a deeper understanding of his own Cuban roots.

That we Cubans and Cuban-Americans can find humor in any situation--even the most tragic and overwhelming--is a testament to our strength. This book is a poignant, funny, and sometimes sad tale of one man's struggle to find his identity. It is a very personal self-examination, but one that most of us (all us "hyphenated" people) can relate to. Are you Cuban? Are you American? Are you "of Cuban descent"? Are you Cuban-American? Are you one person at home and another at work? These are difficult questions, and he walks us through the even more difficult process of trying to find an answer. Does he have an answer? Yes and no. The author also explores the Cuban community's rise from its initial status as an underprivileged, immigrant, "exile" community, to its present role as an assimilated, politically active, financially powerful ethinic force. All of this adds more depth to his own personal identity issues. The book is fascinating, thoughful, and full of relatives we can all look at and say "I have an aunt/uncle/mother/father/etc. just like that!"

In the wake of the Elian Gonzalez saga, I just hope everyone reads this and remembers how and why we got here. Thank you, Professor Firmat.

That is the question that has echoed throughout the Cuban exile community for over 40 years. As the older generation fades, the new generation continues to ask, to wonder, if the next year will finally be the year when Cuba will be free and Castro will be, and there's no other way to say it, dead.

Perez Firmat and I stand a generation apart, yet reading this book, there really was no difference. The Cuban-American experience has much to do with yearning, an emotion that this book succeeded in evoking. We yearn for the Cuba we hear our relatives talk about. We yearn for the freedom of this never-seen homeland, to see the end of the tyranny. And we also yearn for this America, for the apple pie and Coca-Cola life we see and hear all around us, yet can never fully belong to.

Being Cuban-American is not only complex, it is two extremes thrown together. Finding our identity as we straddle two nations is a challenge even now, 40 years later, and even to people like me, first-generation Cuban-Americans. You are forced to ask over and over again, What am I? I am not Cuban, I was born here in the U.S. But I am not American, my "Cuban-ness" is such a strong, obvious part of me it cannot be denied.

Next Year in Cuba does a great job of giving an eloquent, humorous voice to this complexity. It's a great read on the Cuban-American culture, sure to give a better insight and appreciation to those wanting to know more.

As a young person who was born in the United States but whose parents were born in Cuba, identity has never been black and white for me--although it has always been blue, red, and white. This book crystallized so many emotions that I had felt my entire life but had never really examined. If you are 22 and have never been to Cuba, but still call yourself Cuban or if you are 60 and think if your childhood on that island paradise everyday--this book will make you laugh, it might make you cry, and it will certainly make you think. For over forty years now Cubans have been hoping for that "next year" to come to fruition, but we are still waiting. This book will make you long for "next year" like never before. Read it--you will never forget you did.

I was very pleasantly surprised and pleased by this book. It is certainly one of the best poetry collections I've ever read, and I've read many poets and many poems. What immediately draws you in about Soleil's work is its intelligent yet refreshingly accessible and readable style, and at the same time its highly intimate and personal subject-matter, very confessional and autobiographical. Some of the subject-matter will be shocking even by contemporary standards, but as the author himself explains, his real intent isn't merely to shock or to write dirt for dirt's sake, but rather, to express himself creatively and share his impressions about aspects of his life with the reader. Besides, attitudes in the West continue to become more relaxed, more enlightened, and we're a far-cry from the uptight, conservative '80s. Soleil's "Object Lessons" is in the tradition of Charles Bukowski, yet completely original. It has the potential to be (and deserves to be) an underground cult classic like Allen Ginsberg's "Howl", which is perhaps a much more well-known but far less readable and far more outdated work. So what is Oz du Soleil's work really about? Well, if u like to read about how wonderful everything is and how nice the flowers smell in spring, LOOK ELSEWHERE. These poems are unabashedly honest and explicit about how they deal with more daring topics, like the author's sexual interests, including frequenting sex clubs, porn, masturbation, etc, not to mention his preference for full-figured women over the anorexic magazine model. But its not all about sex and erections and "tuna-eating", there's also a lot of other things he talks about, including just regular friendship, especially with women. His use of language is unique and grips your interest. All thoughout, one gets a sense of an outsider, someone who has not quite fit in. Why? Because Soleil is an individualist, a moral nonconformist, a social radical, and an artistic original. Such people always have difficulty in the "real world" becuase they refuse to compromise and conform more than they absolutely have to, they just wanna be themselves and experiment with darker or more daring aspects of reality, even taboo reality. It is also clear from the persona in this work that the author is very human, a person with clarity, sanity, wit, emotions and intellect, not merely a Prozac-medicated, sex-driven, one-dimensional human being. This is Soleil's first published book. I recommend it highly!

This book takes you through a real-life journey of the author. Enjoy the ride as he makes observations regarding that which pleases and that which disgusts him. The candor is refreshing, but not for the faint of heart. I loved this book and get more out of the essays and poems as I read them over and over again.

This book takes you through a real-life journey of the author. Enjoy the ride as he makes observations regarding that which pleases and that which disgusts him. The candor is refreshing, but not for the faint of heart. I loved this book and get more out of the essays and poems as I read them over and over again.

Oz pulls his readers into his poems and invites them to look at life-situations in a different way. His articulate style leads the reader into the depths of Oz's mind. His style and use of language is unique and refreshing.

Object Lessons, was a work of very intimate natures. Very heartfelt and at times revealed the authors cords of gentle and justified frustration while seeking solutions to the myriad of questions about manhood, sexuality, relationships and life in general.

As a woman, I was given a precious peek into a world seen through the eyes of one man where the walls of codes,secrecies and deceptions were temporarily opened. I was made to feel that his journey is shared by many men but remains unspoken for many reasons.

I encourage the author to continue exposing this world to women and men so that we may come into a greater understanding of one another. Not by socialized programming, but by helping each other set aside our fears and appreciating the unique qualities that we all have to offer.