Rick - agreed that post 9/11 New York (which is only a portion of the book) is not a fun subject matter, but I don't think that was behind my objections. It's primarily that - while some of the individual poems succeed, and the level of "discussion" is very high indeed - the piling of similar slow, thoughtful, rhetorical droning (I know I said that before, but it comes back whenever I browse through the book) poem on poem leads to accretive boredom.
Stylistically/technically, I think the following contribute:
- Relentless IP, with very few deviations, relatively few breaks or caesuras, no rhythm beyond the repetitive thrum of a well educated person speaking well-educatedly.
- Over-dependence on modifiers. Many of the poems seem saturated with modifier-noun combinations, and although some are clever, none are spectacular, and their steady presence (damm - there's another!) encourages the drone.
- Essayism. Too much presentation, not enough attention to sonics or imagery, at times more like a paper than a poem.
[This message has been edited by Michael Cantor (edited September 01, 2008).]
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