MUSE POETRY REVIEWS JOHN KOETHE’S SALLY’S HAIR: POEMS

SALLY'S HAIR: POEMS

AUTHOR:

JOHN KOETHE

PRAISE:

"SALLY'S HAIR IS AN ASTONISHING BOOK IN ITS WISDOM, ITS VARIETY, AND ITS GRACE... KOETHE'S BEST SO FAR." -- HARVARD REVIEW

"POWERFUL AND INTIMATE." -- MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL

"(KOETHE) CONTINUES HIS REIGN AS ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST CONTEMPLATIVE POETS WITH POEMS ... THAT SHINE WITH SIMPLE BUT MELODIC LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY." -- BOOKLIST

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

JOHN KOETHE IS A DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MILWAUKEE AND THE FIRST POET LAUREATE OF MILWAUKEE, WHERE HE LIVES. HIS COLLECTION NORTH POINT NORTH WAS A FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE, AND HIS COLLECTION FALLING WATER WON THE KINGSLEY TUFTS AWARD. IN 2005 HE WAS A FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY IN BERLIN.

MY REVIEW AND THOUGHTS:

FIRST I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THIS BOOK IS FILLED WITH AMAZING DESCRIPTIVE WORDS THAT CAPTURES THE BEAUTY OF WHAT POETRY IS ABOUT. THE SIMPLE YET DEEP FEELINGS THE READER GETS IS AMAZING. I FELT WHILE READING THIS I COULD PLACE MYSELF THERE WITH EACH IMAGE THAT MR. KOETHE WROTE ABOUT OR EACH STORY THAT HE WAS PLACING IN THE POETRY AT HAND.

HE HAS A VERY RICH WAY WITH WORDS THAT GRABS THE READER AND DOES NOT LET THEM GO BECAUSE EACH WRITTEN POEM TELLS A STORY THAT IS THOUGHT PROVOKING AND VERY DEEP AT THE SAME TIME. THIS BOOK CONTAINS WONDERFUL POETRY THAT I FEEL IS SOME OF THE BEST AROUND TODAY. IT CONTAINS A PIECE OF MR. KOETHE AND ALSO TAKES A PIECE OF THE READER AND BOTH ARE MIXED SO THAT THE READER CAN UNDERSTAND AND SEE WHERE MR. KOETHE WAS GOING WITH EACH POEM.

I FELT THE PEN OR PENCIL WHAT EVER HE WROTE WITH IN EACH STROKE OF WRITTEN WORD. I FELT IT FLOW IN MY MIND AS I GRACED EACH WORD AND READ AND WAS CAPTURED IN THE BEAUTY AND AMAZING WONDER OF EACH OF HIS WORDS. I FEEL THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ANY POETRY BUFF OR LOVER OF AMAZING WORDS.

MY CHOICE OF FAVORITE POEM FROM THE BOOK EVEN THOUGH EACH ONE OF THEM IS RICH IN TELLING THE POINT AND STORY, I CHOOSE ONE THAT MOST PEOPLE WOULD PASS ON BUT I FELT IT CONTAINED EVERYTHING IT NEEDED TO BE SAID AND ALL THE WONDERFUL IMAGES THE READER NEEDED:

ON PAGE 19-20

A TULIP TREE
It's all here, present and unaccounted for,
With nothing to explain besides the
Wonder and the heightened sense of self
Engendered by these natural enormities
Without a voice or anything to say:
A tulip tree, the brute fact of a lake,
The morning light reflected from a placid
Surface hiding an interior unease
Occasioned by their beauty, taking it all in
Without understanding, for it makes no sense.
What distinguishes constructed beauty
From a beauty that's already there?
Kant tried to answer that-a unity
Without a purpose, nature's intricate
Indifference to our needs-
But I've never understood it very well.
Look at the light that fills the leaves,
The flowers on the tulip tree, the lake that
Wears its cloak of a translucent summer blue.
I see them as I read, and yet there's nothing
On the page but signs extracted from a vacuum by an act of will.
The same forms sprung from nature and imposed;
The same shapes brought to life by light and air
Created by some words I chose here in the darkness of my
room-
Why should the myth of naturalness hold sway, the cult of
Authenticity prevail when accident and artifice
Can both be equally untrue to what we feel and mean?
Life has no form, not while it passes, and what settles into
Place in retrospect is just a story left around from childhood.
It's all there is, and incomplete. But in that lack
I find a thing I've looked for all my ife:
A complement to life, a monument to unreality
That makes a world of difference. Beside each day
There lies another day, responding to the will
Of whoever creates it. Call it a place of freedom,
But its beauty is the beauty of the question
Of different life, indistinguishable from this one
And transforming it, that it might
Answer in its way, and be understood.

DO YOURSELF A HUGE JUSTICE AND PICK THIS BOOK UP AND READ IT, I HAVE ALREADY READ IT TWICE BECAUSE I FELT IT NEEDED A SECOND SCAN BEFORE THIS REVIEW. I KNOW I WILL GO BACK TO THIS BOOK MANY TIMES TO COME BECAUSE I FELL IN LOVE WITH WHAT POETRY IS ABOUT AND MR. KOETHE'S WORDS SHOW THAT. THIS IS A BOOK THAT CAUSED ME TO SMILE AND FEEL THAT WARMTH OF TRUE POETRY AT HAND. THIS IS WHAT GREAT WORDS AND FEELINGS INSIDE A POEM IS SUPPOSE TO EXPRESS. I FELT THIS BOOK SAID EVERYTHING IT NEEDED TO SAY, AND I AS THE READER FELT WHOLE AND COMPLETE WHEN I FINISHED IT.
THIS BOOK ALSO CONTAINS THE POEM SALLY'S HAIR HINTS THE TITLE IT WAS SELECTED BY BILLY COLLINS FOR THE BEST AMERICAN POETRY 2006.

MY RATING:
4 OUT OF 5