The Return

Review: The After Party: Poems Jana Prikryl Tim Duggin Books 2016   Reading poetry is a learning situation for me, new with each poet and poem.   This collection of Jana Prikryl’s work is no exception.   I found the initial contact anywhere from difficult to downright confusing.   OK.   I hated it.   But I read on like a good little trooper.   And behold! the confusion began to clear and the difficult became less so.   What I learned from this poet is that a good dictionary can help, like tumbril from a poem of the same name.    In other instances, a search for the name mentioned in the title like Tisi shed light into my darkness, but I’m still not making the connection for some of them.   In short, many of these poems require more work than I’m willing to give to them.   That was the front portion of her collection.    The back third I found much easier to grasp and written with the tone more tran...

A review of a Nobel Prize winner?  No, but I will make a few comments about what I have read. First, I'd recommend reading the forward and his memories at the end of this collection before the rest. Helps to place him in geography , history, and his general reactions to specific points in his life.  Overall this collection reveals a very personal sort of poet.  By that I mean he seems to write from his own recollections and impressions just to express the experience in words.  He doesn't seem to attempt any commentary about politics or such like.  Second, all the technical stuff related to poetry like meter etc. is way beyond my knowledge level, but as a plain old reader I liked most of this collection.  It tended to the somber with little splashes of color here and there---generally as spring return to the countryside.  Have to wonder how much the climate affected his life and writing. Last, would I return to his writing?  Yes, that's one of ...