Lorine Niedecker (1903–1970)

In the past, I've enjoyed Niedecker's poetry in bits and pieces, here and there as I came to it, so it took me quite some time to get around to this collection. As a whole, though, the collected works read quickly and serve as a majestic and provoking journey through her years of writing. I'm not sure how often I'll come back to many of these poems, but there are many moments here that I'll remember and revisit. And, though I've only been aware of Niedecker's poetry in the past, I truly show more enjoyed the other works in this collection. Her essays are historical and transporting, utterly worth the read, maybe particularly for readers interested in character sketches or writing about their own families or surroundings. The gem of the collection, however, is the radio play that Niedecker based off of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. I'm not sure how I'd feel about it if I hadn't read the novel--my guess is that I wouldn't have been anywhere near so affected by it, though I may be wrong--but as it stands, even though I haven't read Faulkner's novel in at least five years, I found this one of the most powerful pieces of writing I've read in ages. Only about twenty very small (and doublespaced pages) in the collection, the radio play is packed with power--every word counts. Absolutely amazing. If you're a fan of Faulkner, honestly, whether you like poetry or not--this collection is worth your time and energy just for her prose and radio plays.

Simply? There's something for most readers here. Recommended. show less

A sort of crabbed, recalcitrant playfulness ... The poems move in fits and starts, and always seem to be searching ways to avoid song (which is not the same as being without song). Rather than being grand, there's something withholding about the lacunae that fill up these pages.

from small fragments of her 'condensery' to long beautifully lyric poems. Stumbled upon her work after a review in the LRB, worth engaging in. Elements of haiku, an early interest in surrelist and symbolist poetry before developing a voice in the objectvist/modernist tradition.

"I can always go back to fertilization, kimonos, wrap-arounds and diatribes."