Poetry Books

This book can be best described as a "look into the depths and crevices of the soul of a black man". Mr. Parks, although still young in this game called life, has captured through his experiences, the essence of his mind's eye. With each word....with each phrase....with each line.....I get a front row seat to his soul.

I look forward to the next masterpiece.

This book was very well thought out and was creative. Although harsh at times, it kind of brings a certain reality into perspective. I beleive that many of us live two or more lives, a professional life of today in 2001, and another life at home that has been passed to you from generation to generation. Mr. Parks put both lives together in fine print for all to see, like it or not. That's the beuty and the brutality of it. He kind of made me feel like there were hidden messages between the words that either you saw or you didn't but either way the overall outcome was what you wanted it to be. The effect this book had on me was more than just the pleasure of reading a different reality on life, but it served me as a motivator to get me to express myself somehow. It was very motivating and entertaining. It shows a true freedom of expression to it. I like how he left everything up to the reader to interpret, giving anyone and everyone a different understanding of what Mr. Parks was trying to say. This is definately one of those books that you could read over and over and truly get something different out of it everytime you read it. Motivation or simply entertainment, even a lesson or two, this book is capable of touching a wide arena of readers.

Time-that is what's captured in Richard A. Parks' work. He takes you through several periods of his own life, and each page you turn reveals a different layer. Park's book allows you to see the warm, funny, angry, compassionate sides of a man. It even allows you to see vulnerability, which increases the impact of this man's words. His outspoken essays are thought provoking, and so are each of his poetic tributes on life, love, loss, and strength. You get to grow with him as you experience his life through his words, and it is a compilation of work that everyone can truly vibe with, no matter your age. This writer's talents are unlimited, and people will be able to read his work throughout time. He has definitely left his mark in the best way---through his words.

Poet Richard A. Parks, Jr. pens poetry which swings the closet door of his personal experiences wide open. Exposed are some of the storms he survived, loves he lost and lessons he learned along his path to manhood.

Someone Is Sleeping In My Head is definitely for those who believe that our brothers don't know how to communicate effectively. Richard A. Parks, Jr. disproves this theory as he invites readers into his head, his heart and his soul with his brilliantly expressed poetry.

I saw an ad for this book at a web site called Mental Satin that my wife told me about and this book was featured there. I saw the title and the artwork on the cover and i figured this was just a bit too deep for my taste. But i was pleasantly surprised. This is a funny book. Parks has his moments of deepness and the reality of his experiences stand on thier own but this young brotha made me laugh at things i never felt were humorous. His essays, "Blockbuster versus Bankbuster" and "Where Are All The Single Black Women?" had me in tears. I enjoy books that break things down to levels where we all can understand. Mr. Parks did that for me and i thank him for that. Well done sir....well done.

My husband got a copy of this when he was younger, and we have it here at home and have read it to our 3 children countless times. It has great poems, and makes a great bedtime reading book since you can just read a short poem or two instead of a huge story book. Jack Pretlutsky is wonderfu, he is very clever and his poems are all so cute. I recommend everyone get a copy of this book! Its the top rated book in our house

My favorite book is Something Big Has Been Here by Jack Prelutsky. It is a very very funny book of poems. My favorite is "My Fish Can Ride a Bicycle." It is about a fish that can do almost everything. If you like funny books, you'll like this book.

I first read this book when I was about 10 years old (I'm now 22.) Though I haven't even laid eyes on this book in at least 6 or 7 years, I can still recite by memory several of the poems, including "Something Big Has Been Here", "The Early Worm" and "I Wave Goodbye When Butter Flies."

As a child I loved poems, but often felt Shel Silverstein's were too morbid (especially some of the drawings.) Though I'm a huge fan of his now, at the time Something Big Has Been Here was a wonderful, more mellow book of poems that really got me loving cleverly written poems.

The best thing about the book, in my opinion, is that even though it's written for children, it never talks down to them or oversimplifies emotions or actions. And it's funny enough that even adults can get a snicker or two.

This is an awesome book. The poems are very clever, funny and appealing to kids, along the lines of Shel Silverstein. The difference is the very sophisticated vocabulary that Prelutsky uses. I use a poem per week from this book for my remedial middle school students for oral reading fluency, plus I create our weekly vocabulary word list from words from the weekly poem.

This collection of Jack Prelutsky's silly and goofy poems is a must-have in any self-respecting poetry collection. The subjects of the poems range from mask-wearing earthworms to a room-trashing robot; from wishes to be bigger, to fishing in the desert. Children will laugh at the fearsome pirate "Captain Conniption," terror of the seas, who always obeys his mother. Many will sympathize with the longing of the boy in "My Brother is a Quarterback" who yearns to be a great athlete like his brother is.

"I Wave Goodbye When Butter Flies" is an excellent example of the oddities of the English language. The poem turns such common phrases as "pocket change" and "coffee break" on their ears and makes them into something new. There are subtle puns on condiments in "We're Fearless Flying Hotdogs" (can you find the one for saurkraut?). The emptyheadedly happy expressions on the five flying franks make the whole idea even funnier.

James Stevenson's line drawings accentuate the levity and absurdity of the poems. His artwork for "An Elephant is Hard to Hide" demonstrates even better than words the impossibility of stuffing an elephant into a dresser drawer. The expression of glee on the face of the boy reveling in "Mold, Mold" is identical to expressions seen in mud puddley schoolyards.

This volume is a treasure for both children and adults. It's a great way to spend some time laughing with a child (or by yourself).

Just because we Americans might not live in England, some of us still get the word play. Geography does not necessarily dictate misunderstanding of dialect, but I digress. This book is like the title in the ingenuity of the word and sentence structure, and this book also does show that John had a truly great brain.

John Lennon was undoubtedly a very complex man, and he had a marvellous sense of humour. The spoonerisms in some tales are magnificent - some stories are real laugh out loud material. But there is still a streak of the dark and brooding Lennon, which occasionally cuts into the comic genius, and makes you look at him in a different way. This is a valuable book for anyone who seeks to understand one of the great musical influences of our time, and also one if you're looking for a good giggle!

I read this book and thought it was one of the funniest things ever composed. I highly suggest the pieces: 'The Fat Budgie', 'The Wumberlog' ,'Mr. Borris Morris' and 'The National Health Cow'. It can be a bit controversial, shocking even in places, but why should that stop you? But if you like things (or indeed 'pidgers and writty' as Mr. Lennon said)about people's uncles eating budgies, or 13 year old girls waiting outside in boxes until they were 21 (as stated in thier uncle's will) and wondering if they were going to get the key of the door, but then realising they were getting the whole house, or indeed milking a cow who's milk comes out in bottles, then this is the book for you.

I think that John Lennon is a genius. I wish I had the money to buy all of his books. I love how he plays with the language. He is truely going to live on forever. I recommend this book to anyone who loves things to think about and even if you don't just for the fun of it.

Words flow out like restless wind inside a letter box, they tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe. Lennon forever!

This book is distinctively different from most books about persian poetry. Its distinction lies in the authors extensive, yet careful and graceful explanations of the essence of Hafiz message to humanity.
His message: love, truth, and justice is the path to enduring happiness. It is the path to the Creator.

The authors extensive knowledge, love and dedication to Hafiz gives the Poet the wings to fly across time and space to come next to you from ancient Persia and whisper his wisdom in your ears. What an achievement is this!

I hope Haleh Pourafzal and Roger Montgonery keep sharing their sweet wine with us. You have to have read the book to understand this sentence.

I can say nothing about how this book is translated, as an earlier reviewer did, since I am an English speaking monolingual person. I can only say that the book had much personal meaning for me. I found it meaningful, for example, when the authors spoke of life's purpose being service to the divine attributes of humanity: The authors say "The rend is the compassionate, emphathetic embracer of the world's pain. Unseparated from the creator, unafraid to embrace existance as it is, the rend takes on and deals with the darkness as well as the light." They also comment that "The transformation of human beings into a mirror of their creator is the precise intent and goal of evolutionary unity." I found that many times there were phrases in the text that really resonated with me spiritually.

When we are ready to hear a message, perhaps it presents itself. Perhaps I was just in the right place to meditatively receive some of the ideas in this book- and the book became the right vehicle for me to use to integrate these insights into my life. Many times I found the authors' words wise, gentle and compassionate.

While I have found that Daniel Ladinsky's translations of Hafez more accessable and pleasing to my ear, it helps that the authors include commentary about their translations that helped me understand what they felt the poems were saying.

The authors quote Hafez as saying that "The tale of love is only one story but it's wonderous- for every new version I hear is unique in itself." This book is indeed a tale of love: wonderful to my ear, comforting and inspiring to my heart.

So many books have been written about Persian poetry by non-Persian people in recent years that you may wonder if Persians ever write about their own literary figures. Well, here is a very intelligent and warm book by a Persian woman (and an American co-author) about the deeply-loved poet Hafez. As would be expected, it presents a different picture of thhe poet and a different feel for his poetry than most other books. Hafez is talked about as a true universal poet rather than a Sufi, as most others do. I had not ever heard him called the philosopher of love, but it is a fitting label.

Many people say Hafez cannot be translated well because he writes in an extremely complex manner. In so many translations, this is true. But this poetry is translated with a warm and true feeling for the rhythm and even the rhyme, a unique accomplishment. The book is filled with both the full poems and individual verses. The authors offer extensive discussions of the meanings.

Like another reviewer, I particularly liked the translation of The Wild Deer, a Hafez masterpiece which is not easily understood. This well-known poem conveys the teachings of the poet's whole life.

But perhaps the best part is that the author shares her personal lifetime understanding and study of this cultural being who is so loved by Persians, and now American readers can look at Hafez with affection, a little bit like Persians themselves do. This is a very different view than that of Western literary scholars, and it is so nice that it is now shared in an enlightening and gracious way by a Persian writer. It is a point of great cultural pride.

I recommend this writing to all lovers of poetry and good books.

A wonderful, mystical book that is grounded in ancient Persian tradition. The overall presentation of this Persian poet is well researched and the poetry is moving. I took a long time to read this book, and found it to be in the top ranks of current mystical writing. It is thoughtful, moving and original. I would love to see additional translations.

This is a wonderfully mystical book about the Persian master poet Hafez, whose poems remain popular today with Iranians all over the world as a great divination tool. The authors are an Iranian woman, H. Pourafzal, who learned the poetry from childhood, and an American man, R. Montgomery. The book also draws on the work of Ms. Pourafzal's father, who lectures on Persian poetry at Sorbonne University in Paris. The result of this collaboration is a fluidly articulated presentation of an ancient mystical master that has not previously appeared in the West. The many aspects of Hafez's thought are revealed by examining the depths of his poetry in the context of his own times. What emerges are not only many pages of flowing verse but also an engaging vision of a wise universal teacher. The translations/renditions are first rate. Very different from other "scholarly" books on Persian mysticism, and very highly recommended for any reader with a strong mystical bent and the desire to discover a wonderful ancient teacher.

Miss Gabrielle sent chills thru my body with her book of poetry, Stand and Be Counted. It is an easy read, very passionate in the themes and incredibly mind-enlightening. I am looking forward to reading more of her work!

Incredibly profound, humorous, thought provoking, entertaining, and a delight!

I loved it! Pick up a copy of Elissa Gabrielle's debut book. Truly excellent and inspiring! I met her on the street, just happened to recognize her from reading the book. I couldn't believe it! One of the most approachable people! So down to Earth. Anyway, Stand and Be Counted was gripping, and what else can I say, "Loved It"!

A wonderful Accomplishment

Pick up a copy, it really is a good book

I am not normally an avid reader of poetry but this book by Renee Bagley has awakened my taste buds..
The book is extremely readable and I commend Ms Bagley for the depth of feeling she manages to infuse into each purposeful piece.
The author seeks to tap into the great depth of feeling that is our human condition as she touches our most sensitive areas with this collection of verse.
I found many of the poems quite sad, but hauntingly beautiful although, at times, I could almost taste the despair in the words.
I must admit to being more drawn to some pieces than others but all the verses were painted with delicate brushstrokes and all were rich in emotion.
My own favourites include `An Angel came down'. The words of this poem formed images that flowed freely through my mind and the last few words held a tremendous resonance.
`The Winding Road' also resonated for me, as it will for so many people, as it is about survival. Rich vivid imagery is packed into its short succinct lines.
Hauntingly simple and vividly recalled is `Remember September 11th'. A truly beautiful tribute to that harrowing time.
The overriding feeling in this work, I think, is one of hope. It is so vividly expressed in the singularly anthem-like poem `Heart of Hope'
My favourite, however is `In the Night' which describes the strange lonely world of night and the scary mind games that darkness can produce.
Finally, I must say that the poem `Tangled Web' easily represents the overall feel of the book. I loved the last two lines especially, as they are a timely reminder to us all of the power of emotion and it's place in all our psyche's.
This book is food for the soul and Ms Bagely has indeed taken us on an emotional ride through great terrains of sadness but also towering mountains of hope and deep pools of love.
I recommend this work to anyone who truly respects the human condition with all it's failings and all it's joy.

Review by
Patricia J Newcombe 11 march 2004
Author of INSIGHT
www.patriciajnewcombe.com

Tangled Web is a collection of poetry that presents the myriad of human emotions that come along with living and loving in an imperfect world.

These poems are thought provoking and easy to read, definitely a
collection to read by the fireplace, huddled up with your significant other. Tangled Web has plenty of poems about love - love sought, love returned, and love lost - making it an excellent Valentine's Day gift.

I highly recommend reading "Darkest Hour". It is a dark melodic poem that is creatively written. I was also touched by "Release" because of my strong faith in God and my views on life. If you like poetry, Tangled Web is a book worth checking out!

Tangled Web
by
Renee Bagley

Book Review by
Ron Shepherd

Tangled Web is a short peek into a secret photograph album of poetry, guarded closely by the author Renee Bagley. She has allowed her readers just a short look into her world of poetry, a world where she unveils her hidden thoughts to just a few close friends.

This book forces its readers to examine closely, their innermost recesses and rewards them with their own memories of times past and loves lost. She has found a way to make us all a little better people, just with her wonderful way of expressing her feelings.

Tangled Web takes the reader on a journey that is written in vivid color, a journey that most of us have already taken. The beauty is that it forces the reader to recall these times. She makes us feel like we are all a significant part of her life, close friends.

We've all had that special friend that, when we walk into the kitchen, she hands us a cup of coffee, the friend who is genuinely interested in how we are. So it is with Renee Bagley. After reading her book, we too become close friends with her.

I highly recommend this book as a significant addition to the world of poetry.

I loved this book! Renee has outdone herself in telling us of the world's woes and sweetnesses. It is a captivting collection of poerty like I have never seen before.

"Tangled Web" is such an apt title for this collection because the poems grab you from the first words you read, and the emotions they stir are complex like the threads of a web. The author's heart is so clearly laid open that I couldn't help but admire her fearless spirit. The beauty of the words at times is so real you feel compelled to close your eyes and envision the picture they sketch. This is truly a collection that will nurture every soul.

I read this book in one sitting, which included the time during my daughter's orchestra concert. I'm ashamed to admit that I was more interested in the book than the concert. After I read it, I immediately xeroxed off several pages to give to my teaching friends who I thought would enjoy the poems as much as I did and I was right, they did! Something about the selections really spoke to my heart. It felt like the poems were meant to nourich me during those days when I was running low on fuel. I highly recommend this book to any teachers out there.

I bought two copies of this book, one for myself and one for my supervisor. The poems are well chosen and the book is well organized into different categories having to do with vocational discernment. What makes this book unique, however, is the personal testimonies from teachers describing the meaning of each poem in their lives. Since I received this book I have used it extensively, not only for my own enrichment but also for the enrichment of the patients I work with,

I bought this book a while back for my oldest daughter who teaches high school English and Art. It was so awesome that I kept it for myself. (I have a naughty habit of reading all the books I buy as gifts before I give them away....does that make them used books?) My copy is quite dog-eared and worn.

If you love poetry, you NEED this book. The poems are varied and inspiring and enlightening. I discovered many new poets whose books I just had to own after reading their poems here. It's an amazing anthology and would make a great gift to give any friend or loved one who enjoys poetry.

At first glance you might think it's just another "teacher book" but it is so fullfilling. As a teacher who loves poetry, literacy, and teaching children to love the written word this book touched me deeply. The poems can be read in the classroom, the narratives are rich and moving and they made me realize I was not alone in feeling I was called to the teaching profession. This book was a Christmas gift to me, one I have deeply cherished. The book gets to the core; it brought tears to my eyes.....tears of joy.

I absolutely treasure this book! For several years now, everywhere I give talks or do workshops on service-learning and civic education in higher education, I find an excuse to read a poem or two from this compelling collection of poetry. I think educators are yearning for renewal, and the combination of each poem along with a teacher's note on the meaning of the poem, strikes a chord. I know this, not only from audience reactions to my reading from the book, but also because I always get asked for the citation! I am always happy to recommend the book--(no one in higher ed has said to me they were not interested in the book, when I tell them the poems were selected by K-12 teachers). Suggestion for gift-giving: whenever it fits the occasion, it is a great present. It is also perfect for end-of-year giving for groups (appreciation gift for graduating seniors, recognition of teachers, thank you to participants in service-learning and community involvement programs, etc.).

I am not sure whether we learn much about the CRAFT of verse from these lectures. But one thing that we do learn from Borges is what a pleasure it is to be able to find beauty in poetry (and prose). Borges was an amazing man - he was almost seventy when he delivered these six lectures, and he did it without the help of notes since his poor eyesight made it impossible for him to read.

For Borges, poetry is essentially undefinable. It flows like Heraklit's river - the meaning of words shifts with time, and readers' appreciation changes over the years. Poetry as he understands it is a riddle because it is beyond rational understanding; it is 'true' in a higher (magical) sense. And what is true in a higher sense remains unfathomable, a riddle: "we KNOW what poetry is. We know it so well that we cannot define it in other words, even as we cannot define the taste of coffee, the color red or yellow, or the meaning of anger, of love, of hatred, of the sunrise, of the sunset, or of our love for our country. These things are so deep in us that they can be expressed only by those common symbols that we share. So why should we need other words [to define what poetry is]?"(18)

Metaphors, according to Borges, are the core of poetry, closer to the magic source of words than any other artistic means of expression. Metaphors are so powerful because for him "anything suggested is far more effective than anything laid down. Perhaps the human mind has a tendency to deny a statement. Remember what Emerson said: arguments convince nobody. They convince nobody because they are presented as arguments."(31)

My favorite lecture is the fourth, 'Word-Music and Translation.' It is a real gem. I will not quote Borges on how word-music can be rendered in translation; just a short quote to illustrate how magnificently language can be translated by an inspired translator of genius. When Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century translated 'ars longa, vita brevis,' (art is long, life is short) he chose a stunning interpretation with 'the lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.' Borges comments that here we get "not only the statement but also the very music of wistfulness. We can see that the poet is not merely thinking of the arduous art and of the brevity of life; he is also feeling it. This is given by the apparently invisible, inaudible keyword - the word 'so.' 'The lyf SO short, the craft SO long to lerne.'"(62) One small word, and it makes all the difference.

And since I prefer translations true to the spirit over translations true to the letter, I was pleased to learn from Borges that all through the Middle Ages, people thought of translation not in terms of a literal rendering but in terms of something being re-created.

I do believe that these lectures speak of the wisdom of Borges; not in spite of, but because of the contradictions in the text. Here we meet a man in full; a man who stresses the irrational in poetry and the immediacy of experiencing it, yet proves by his own example how the experience of poetry grows with the plain, rational knowledge about poetry that we gather over the years. Borges is also a man who lives in literature. He finds new beauty in poetry because he continues to change every day. And this is perhaps the most inspiring message of his lectures: people who continue to enjoy changing with the new things they learn 'turn not older with years, but newer every day,' as Emily Dickinson phrased it.

I don't believe that any one person in the history of letters has lived more fully in books, around books, with books, and through books than has Jorge Luis Borges. Thus I give him the title of Master Borges. It is a title I, myself, do not give him but one that he already bears simply by the person he is, was, and continues to be through his legacy. I'm sure he would modestly disapprove. But Kafka thought himself (at least on some level) a hack, so it would not surprise that one who has inspired me with such a sense of wonder in words, as has Borges, would think that he has not really done anything special at all. And there is the rub. Borges is telling his personal feelings about verse and prose (the same thing according to him) but never onces considers he is giving us the beauty of words merely by remembering them. In his recollections and meditations lie a wisdom that is almost preternatural. I give as example these few quotes:

"What is important, what is all-meaning is the fact that poetry should be living or dead, not that the style should be plain or elaborate."

"There are, of course, verses that are beautiful and meaningless. Yet they still have a meaning - not to the reason but to the imagination."

"Remember that the Gnostics said the only way to be rid of a sin is to commit it, because afterwards you repent it. In regard to literature, they were essentially right. If I have attained the happiness of writing four of five tolerable pages, after writing fifteen intolerable volumes, I have come to that feat not only through many years but also through the method of trial and error."

There are more pearls, many more, and it will take many rereadings to find them all, if such a thing is possible. It makes one desperately wish that they could have had the opportunity to sit and hear the master speak. If (no, when) you read this book, do so slowly. And read as if you were hearing the man face to face. Just as Borges heard Casinos-Assens, Fernandez, and his father speak to him when in search of knowledge and wisdom, I hear, at least I would like to think that I hear, Borges speak, for I have heard him speak from the living breathing pages of this book. Read. Please. See if you can hear the music of his voice.

Ladies and gentleman... Borges is one of my favorite writers, so you can imagine the joy I had when I could finally listen to these lectures.

I tend to find that, when an artist says something great on art, it tends to be more useful than what most specialists have to say.

Borges has many important things to say about art and philosophy, or should I say, on beauty in general. And he says them in the most beautiful way.

Borges writes in this work, " I think of myself as essentially being a reader. As you are aware, I have ventured into writing;but I think that what I have read is far more important than what I have written. For one reads what one likes- yet one writes not one would like to write, but what one is able to write." pp.98
This is not to contradict Borges but it seems to me that his writing is what it is essentially because he is such a reader. And as others have often remarked the most remarkable reader .For he reads from so many different linguistic and literary traditions- and he reads with his own imagination, in effect rewriting and combining all he reads into what he enables us to read- his writing.
In all this one feels that Borges so loves literature that he is making it live more by writing to us about what he reads. He is the writer perhaps more than any other for whom books are the first and primary experience. They are the world before the world is the world. Borges reads and rereads them and presents his rereadings to us.
They often amaze us with their startling perceptions and beauty.
This work is ostensibly about the craft of verse but is really Borges talking about various aspects of his reading, and his writing. And he talks with such wisdom and insight, such original poetry that it is impossible not to take pleasure in this work.
Borges writes of the music of poetry and of the meaning of metaphor and how real literature like Louis Armstrong's 'jazz' must be sensed and felt as its first definition. For people who love poetry and people who love books there is no other writer who more strengthens their faith in what they are doing, than this very great writer and reader, this supreme lover of literature.

Words by Borges are your words. Within those words, that W-O-R-D-S, you will find an enclosed space of infinity (Oh, to be lost in that infinity and surround myself with words). His library of words is your library.

Don't forget to lose yourself in these words. You will soon become someone else. Maybe Borges or Stevenson. Maybe Poe, maybe Schopenhauer. You even might just rediscover (rewrite) yourself into a new eternity...

Enjoy these words...

I love reading poetry books and this was just a darling little thing that kept me horrified and freaked out and falling in love with the human spirit all over again. Reminds me a lot of Jim Morrison's work.

Well I use to hate poetry. I remember back in highschool when they made us read Shakeaspeare and Lord Byron in English class. I hated it I couldn't understand it at all, and my teacher she gushed over Shakeaspeare, acted like he was a god. Well I refused to read a poem after I got out of college. So I have been dating this girl and guess what she's a teacher, she kept telling me about this book of poetry that she just loves and well it has been our only real disagreement. So finally I gave in, yeah women can be persuasive. I read her copy of this book and I was astounded, I couldn't believe that I had been refusing to read this stuff for years. Then I came to my senses and decided that this guy was alone and everything else was like Shakespeare, well I was wrong I picked up a copy of one of Saul Williams books and was just as astounded. But hey if you really want a fresh look at poetry, life, and all just read this guy. Now I need to go so I can order my copy of this book, my girlfriend has been insisting I give her's back. I especially loved the one on page 133.

After years of dedicated searching under the tutelage of my uncle who thrives on unknown poets, I found a wonderful poet before he did; Rik Woods with "This Little Red Bitch in My Chest" has assembled a new authoritative guide to life, survival, and modern poetry for the whole of society. I usually tend toward Australian poets like Banjo Patterson and Tim Thorne, but last summer I was in New York City to visit a mate. We were walking down the road a came across a bookseller and I were astonished by the title and just snatched it without even looking really. Well I stashed it in my gear and didn't look at it until I got back. Well I love this book; the bloke is just marvellous with one-liners every so often. Well this is definitely a book for the Joe Bloggs.

I couldn't put it down. The words swayed me into times and places of past, present, and future. Images cursed through mind of mad men and sultry lusts, dripping with sweetness and innocence. Some poems made me want to put my hand over my eyes like a child watching a scary movie, but still always peeking through the fanning of the fingers. I have tried to put the book down, and like an obsession, I keep reading, one more poem, one more poem. Wonderfully written, experience laden, and an emotional rollercoaster. Thank you for sharing, the world needs more.

This Little Red Bitch In My Chest (2004.) A collection of poems covering the heavy and the distraught the edge and the inner soul.

INTRODUCTION: (I discovered most of the following from Rik Woods' Yahoo 360 and Myspace.com sites.)
Rik Woods isn't some academia poet that lives under publish or perish. For decades, Rik Woods has been writing and building a following of people he knows without ever being published. Read on for my review on this new and exciting poet.

OVERVIEW:
This book is essential a wandering through a life, at least that is how it seems to me. A life lived and struggled through. But I wonder if he can sustain this kind of writing or will it run out before he can make a real impact on the world of poetry, notably the hardest writing market to succeed in.

REVIEW:
I hate writing reviews and you can see I have never posted one on Amazon before, but after watching this book for several years and ordering a few for friends and seeing great reviews but none that really highlighted what this poet can do. So I am going to take the time to make a few points out of the book.




Only the good die young
Excerpt: Just as sweet death comes to claim me
That damn machine brings me back
Have you ever dreamed on life support?

COMMENTS: Okay so this poem might irritate some people right off as it is about euthanasia, I can't really say from reading the book where the poet stands on this subject or any others for that matter. But the character in the poem is definetly pro-euthanasia, as you see the struggle his body is going through just to survive you kinda wish he would die.

The hand that hurts
Excerpt: My father was not a man of great acclaim, yet
He is mine to claim
COMMENTS: Okay so this one after you read it is clearly about child abuse, but asfter you get through it and reread it you realize that from the child's point of view only knowing that abuse, he stil loves his father.

Reproduction
Excerpt: As I stand here in the cold ass rain
The fear of loneliness gripping me
For the thousandth time this day
COMMENTS: When I first read this one I was kinda at a loss, I thought it was just a person depressed over not having children. But now I wonder if maybe there was and it was aborted or miscarried. I don't know like all poetry I think each person has to take their own away from it, and I think this short simple poem is a prime example.

A whole lot of nothing
excerpt: and a whole lot of nothing is what I will leave the
sons and daughters that will never be born
COMMENTS: Again one that evokes that feeling of longing. Sometimes you wish that when you turn the page there would be a happy poem, and I guess occasionally that does happen, but when you read ones like this you just want to cry.

Stuck
excerpt: Have you ever felt like a cigarette butt in the bottom
Of a half empty beer bottle
Unsure if it's stale beer or urine
COMMENTS: Okay so this one is just great in my book, those first three lines sum up what we have all felt in life at some point, but could really never put out finger on how to say just how crappy life felt at that time. If those three lines don't make you say "yeah" and laugh at how hard life really is then I don't know what will.

If I Fall Down on My Way to Heaven
excerpt: And now I'm so tired I lay me down to die
And if I should go to heaven instead of oblivion
I give my soul for Elvis to take
COMMENTS: Where the hell does a person come up with lines like these? I mean it is great to see that a person can take something in life that has become mundane like mentioning Elvis and turn it into something that makes you do a double take and say what! This is another of those that you will have to really take your own from it.

Sexual innuendo
excerpt: I reach for you and find your thighs wet
Come here, baby, kiss the king tonight
COMMENTS: To put it simply, this poem is erotic without being just porn as you so often see in erotic poetry. It appears to be a sweet memory from the past that a person relives. It is sweet is so many ways which is probably why it ended up in a chapter titled "Sweetheart"

OVERALL:
Overall, it's a good collection. If you don't want to spend the money to get this book believe me if you like poetry and reading poetry it will be your loss? I have spent a lot of money on poetry and I tell you this is one book I have not minded buying 4 times now, and three friends have agreed with me on this poet's work. I do not hesitate to say that often it left me in tears. When a writer (poet or novelist) can do that to a person you know you have hit upon a wonderful and insightful artist.

In Lise Goett's musically eloquent book, Waiting for the Paraclete, the human heart, her heart, beats in celebration of the spirit in its nakedness. Hers is a spirit that has seen and is seen. Hers is a heart that joyfully and painfully knows. Goett, in her honesty reveals herself in "Rescuers," "The honor of saving/is that the rescued kneels down/and puts his head/inside the jaws of the rescuer,/dying to all else except what the heart knows." Waiting for the Paraclete is a privelage for the human race.

This prize-winning first collection by Lise Goett is a treasure house of alchemical language that like her Eurydice who knows "too well/that no one resurrects you save yourself" manages, through layer upon layer of rich complexity, to bring the reader to epiphanies of insight and pleasure. I found myself savoring these poems' gleaned surfaces for their wizardly blending of the abstract and visceral, for how magically the concrete becomes incandescent. In "Antediluvian", a butcher whose hands "raw from the slaughter" suggests "There is nothing we would not kill with our appetites" also gives the speaker "white packages [...]of a sacrement." Rituals of sacrifice recur throughout the poems in this book, whether in a mother's hard earned tuition for school which becomes the bet for a better life when her beau loses his wealth on a racing horse and shoots himself, or the enactment of Gary Gilmore's execution in "Blood Atonement" or the lyrical recollections of failures of love (romantic or familial), the poems enact an incantation for surviviing what seems to defy survivial. The speaker tells us in "Rescuers", "[...]perhaps the heart strips itself/and goes down,/shedding its various selves/to fathom the nature of drowning:"

The stunning immediacy of so many of the images in WAITING FOR THE PARACLETE, imbues the detail with such particularity that, like the body itself, it acts as ballast and conduit for our deepest yearnings against the world's cruelties. Poems like "Of the Comb" and "Labyrinth" transform the violence of loss into a hymn of martyrdom. I found myself thinking of the biblical saints, St. Francis in particular, and of the tenuous journey that is the gamble for redemption in a fallen world. Like the speaker in "Swimming with Eels", "the covenant" that resonates in so much of this book is poetry's ability to leave us with the "glistening" of what otherwise has us living within a "circle of dread".

"It is beginning to snow," writes Lise Goett in her poem The Rescuers, "as it does in the dreams of the unhearing, /and you keep on walking." Then, in Numen: "I went out past the borders of town / and lay down with the silence of tractors."

It is good to be writing this, late October on the verge of All Soul's Day-Day of the Dead in Mexico-on the verge of snow. For Lise Goett's new (and prize-winning) book of poems, "Waiting For the Paraclete" is a welcome to this verge: the edge of summer and winter, life and death, desire and consummation, flesh/ spirit, the cliff, altar, kiss, the calling. So open the cover as you would open a door-the French doors of Paris, the icy meat-room of a butcher, the catalfaque of St. Catherine, a blind boy's empty socket, the gap between silence and speech. Open your own yearning and enter its cathedral, for you have come to a sacrament.

"It is hard to begin with a death," begins the book's first poem..."of what you thought would be your future." And what the future gives us, in this flow of canticles, is a river
whose course is sure, whose shape is as unfathomable as "islands bandaged in fog," whose attraction is total, often brutal, beautiful, fatal-and incarnational. The voice that beckons us is at once particular, contemporary ("...a rhapsody of movement along the Boule Mich / past the skewered meats of the Greek tavernas"...."Some fat guy from Nebraska wants to know the rest of the story." ..."your father fondling uncut cigars at the Petroleum Club"...a retarded child "tooling down the edge of the interstate / on a tricycle") and as archetypal as the soul's own memory ("All passion tastes of relinquishment./ The world is slipping away. / You who knew this music before light have begun to hear /...and even this music will continue without you,/ those tiny white lights strung through the treetops / taken down at the end of the holiday, intensifying your love.").

Lines-and music-like this are the gorgeous underpinning of Goett's alchemical structure. And they call, as the Sirens called Odysseus, with compelling power throughout her incantational collection. I'm tempted here to simply start reprinting verses-lines of atmospheric light, "election by fire," of water, black lingerie, of the beast (and breast) shaking in its harness; to draw more maps of this songline's own cartography. But that would be injustice; I can't show you the fish by holding up its parts.

Lise introduces her collection with a quote from Carlos Drummond de Andrade: "Save all of yourself for the wedding though / nobody knows when or if it will come." So, too, I'll save the whole of "Waiting For the Paraclete" for you. After all, who is the paraclete?

Goett uses words to lead, to touch, and to surround you with your world, revealing the corners that are familiar yet unexplored. Her words are magic, conjuring and revealing. I was drawn to sit and ponder life as seen through this wonderful poet. More a fiction reader, I was held by the words of these poems and so happy to have come upon this work. A must read - must own book!

I first encountered this brand of incredulity when, many years ago, I really looked long and hard at a painting by Ingres (The Bather). For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how it was done. Was this really paint? Did a brush lay it down? The picture seemed so perfect in matter, in its graceful redemption of the world. This is hard to explain. What I'm trying to say is, the artist didn't appear to have intervened; and here I was, a spectator beholding pure form, emotion flowing directly from the source of life. I am struck by the same sensation in reading this book. In these poems, one recognizes those old partners in time: love, death, despair, the absurd, and the divine, and one is astonished and even terrified at rediscovering all these bright and dark spots of our mortality. I love the way Goett gives little plots to the emotions. She tells me about what I know and don't know but most of all she fashions the astonishing uncommon substance of life and combines it with the unexpectedly common stuff of it, too--the earthy and unearthly--so that the reader is suddenly made aware of them both at the same time.