I bought Seidel's 1959-2009 collected shortly after it came out, mostly on the strength of reviews that noted his fondness for rhyme and meter. The book sits on my shelves still, but I don't pick it up often.
By contrast with Ian, who finds the poems fun, I sometimes find them--what to say? Challenging is too positive, though it gets at the fact that I sometimes just don't understand them. But usually I do get them; I'm simply put off. The absolutely deadpan, flat affect with which he approaches sordid situations gets to me. And he has a habit of forcing me to look at what I'd rather not. "
Lorraine Motel, Memphis" is an example.
Okay, the really surprising rhymes can sometimes make me smile. But if I'm looking for fun and I have to get through the deadpan shock to find it, I'd rather just pick up George Starbuck instead.
I think I keep Seidel on my shelves out of a sense of the duty to face all of poetry. It's the same reason I keep Celan, who is terribly difficult for other reasons.
(This is the reason I don't generally write reviews of books I dislike. All it does is reveal my own limitations.)
Threaded Mode
