Talking Dirty to the Gods: Poems

Rating:
Summary: I should have bought this book...
Review: I picked it up at the book store and was flipping through it. Wow! Seemed to be a little more accessible than some of Komunyakaa's other work, but just as powerful if not more so.

Rating:
Summary: I should have bought this book...
Review: I picked it up at the book store and was flipping through it. Wow! Seemed to be a little more accessible than some of Komunyakaa's other work, but just as powerful if not more so.

Rating:
Summary: Not Komunyakaa's best offering
Review: I was looking forward to reading "Talking Dirty to the Gods" from the moment I first saw it mentioned in "Poets & Writers." I was slightly disappointed with the book, however. My understanding is this was a collection of poems which were written during Yusef's walks to his classes. Every one of the 131 poems is four stanzas of four lines each. Many focus on Greek mythology (keeping with the theme of the book.) It isn't that the work is hard to understand, but it is more ambiguous than "Magic City" and "Dien Cai Dau" in its imagery. Two poems, however, caught my eye as being two of the best I've ever read. "Bedazzled", and "Genet" are exceptionally beautiful and finely honed poems with strong images and an afterthought that makes the reader just say "wow". Unfortunately the entire book is not like this, as "Magic City", and "Dien Cai Dau" were for me. Overall this book is definately worth reading, but I would not spend the extra money to get the hardback, if I had it to do over again.

Rating:
Summary: Not Komunyakaa's best offering
Review: I was looking forward to reading "Talking Dirty to the Gods" from the moment I first saw it mentioned in "Poets & Writers." I was slightly disappointed with the book, however. My understanding is this was a collection of poems which were written during Yusef's walks to his classes. Every one of the 131 poems is four stanzas of four lines each. Many focus on Greek mythology (keeping with the theme of the book.) It isn't that the work is hard to understand, but it is more ambiguous than "Magic City" and "Dien Cai Dau" in its imagery. Two poems, however, caught my eye as being two of the best I've ever read. "Bedazzled", and "Genet" are exceptionally beautiful and finely honed poems with strong images and an afterthought that makes the reader just say "wow". Unfortunately the entire book is not like this, as "Magic City", and "Dien Cai Dau" were for me. Overall this book is definately worth reading, but I would not spend the extra money to get the hardback, if I had it to do over again.