Insomnia Diary (Pitt Poetry Series)

Rating:
Summary: The truth is simple
Review: Amen to the reviewer from Studio City. I'm not often floored by a writer. I usually yawn after reading some fiction that's supposed to be great and vainly say to myself, "I could have written that. What's the big deal." But when I read Hicok's poem "Calling him back from layoff" I exclaimed, "Holy Hell," then I wept. I wept at its beauty. Writing that's not self-absorbed, not obscure, not as if it's trying to impress with it's false sophistication. I envy the writing. And I'm filled with a great sense of humility when I'm full of my own ego when I think my own writing has merit. Enjoy Hicok. When you read him, it's like being injected with adrenalin to recussitate you from the slumber you've fallen in daily living. It's only when you're awakened that you realize how near dead you were and you are forever changed.

Rating:
Summary: The truth is simple
Review: Amen to the reviewer from Studio City. I'm not often floored by a writer. I usually yawn after reading some fiction that's supposed to be great and vainly say to myself, "I could have written that. What's the big deal." But when I read Hicok's poem "Calling him back from layoff" I exclaimed, "Holy Hell," then I wept. I wept at its beauty. Writing that's not self-absorbed, not obscure, not as if it's trying to impress with it's false sophistication. I envy the writing. And I'm filled with a great sense of humility when I'm full of my own ego when I think my own writing has merit. Enjoy Hicok. When you read him, it's like being injected with adrenalin to recussitate you from the slumber you've fallen in daily living. It's only when you're awakened that you realize how near dead you were and you are forever changed.

Rating:
Summary: Another Winner
Review: Another wonderful book by an amazing poet. Hicok's imagination is evident throughout. These poems move around a great deal and yet never lose their focus on people, real people. I've never read a poem about how it feels to lay someone off, and in "Dropping the euphemismth", as in other poems, Hicok inserts moments of surreal intensity within a narrative framework which give his work an unusal emotional depth. This book is a worhty follow up to "Animal Soul."

Rating:
Summary: Journey Through the Dark Side of Life
Review: In Bob Hicok's fourth book, Insomnia Diary, Hicok takes the reader on a risque journey through the darker side of life as seen by the eyes of the narrator. While some of Hicok's poems speak simply of love and life's basic needs, other poems have a distinctively sexual undertone that some people might shy away from. All of this is foreshadowed through the choice of the painting used as the cover art: Luis Cruz Azaceta's "Time-Man" in which the central figure is nude and has his head severed from the rest of his body. The dark range of browns, blues, reds, and black in the painting add to a reader's overall impression that the poetry hidden between the covers will have a dark edge. A dark edge that Hicok does not fail to deliver.

In Insomnia Diary Hicok gives a reader tales of love toward another ("My life with a gardener"), sexual fantasies ("Another awkward stage of convalescence"), social criticisms ("Growing at the speed of fashion"), and even tales of being forced to lay off others in the work force ("Dropping the euphemism"). All these snapshots of life are wrapped neatly and hidden behind the "Time-Man" who practically begs the reader to open the book and see what tales the covers hold. Dark threads and themes run throughout Hicok's work, but beauty exists as well in Hicok's written words. Insomnia Diary is well worth a reader's time. Hicok's poems make a reader think, and those are the poems that will last.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: This is easily one of the best books of poetry I've read in ages. There's lots of great writing out there, but every once in a while a book comes along that really knocks you out. Denis Johnson's "The Veil," Michael Burkard's "Secret Boat," Beckian Fritz Goldberg's "Never Be The Horse"...this book fits in that field for me...Just amazing--it makes you want to read more, and write more.