Rita Dove

These are powerful poems, some about public figures, some deeply personal. I truly appreciated Ms. Dove's end notes because I often understood that I was reading about an important historical event or person, but couldn't quite place it. I was happy to be educated.

The book is broken into six sections. While I found meaning throughout, my favorite sections were "After Egypt" (with poems such as "Elevator Man, 1949") and "Little Book of Woe" (about her MS diagnosis; "Soup" is perhaps my favorite in this collection). And don't skip the book's intro, "Prose in a Small Space." It sets the tone.

Playlist for the Apocalypse was an NPR, NYT, and Publishers Weekly best book of 2021 and also won the 2022 Library of Virginia Literary Award for Poetry. I can see why. It's not that Dove writes about life-changing events, big and small, but how she writes about them. And thank goodness she does. As summed up in "Climacteric":

"...If loving every minute spent jostling syllables / while out in the world others slog through their messes / implies such shuttered industry is selfish or irresponsible // then I'm the one who's fled. Ta-ta! I'm not ashamed; / each word caught right is a pawned memory, humbly reclaimed."… (more)

Poetry's not my "go-to" genre unless it's accompanied by a 2x4 whacked against my head to help me uncover the underlying message. But maybe I'm not sampling the good stuff. Reading Rita Dove was like growing up on Two Buck Chuck and suddenly winning an all-expenses vacation to Napa Valley. Show me someone else writing:

"Who are these children?
Who had them and with whom?
Through the general coffee tones
the shamed genetics cut a creamy swathe.
Cherokee's burnt umber transposed
onto generous lips, a glance flares gray
above the crushed nose we label
Anonymous African: It's all here,
the beautiful geometry of Mendel's peas
and their grim logic--"

I read most of my books from the library. This is a purchase because I keep coming back to it. Powerful!… (more)