Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969-1980 (American Poets Continuum)

Some of these poems are smack-you-between-the-eyes powerful. Mighty content in a few words. But the brief memoir with which the book concludes was even more moving, for me. It feels like oral history transcribed...poignant, evocative, affirmative, sometimes sad but always triumphant.

The poetry here is beautifully written and worth reading--pleasantly accessible, but lasting and touching as well. My favorite poem from the collection was called, simply, "Salt". Most are short, simple, and worth a re-read. The memoir I was less satisfied with. It seemed to lack the flavor and the honesty of the poems, strangely enough, and came off as more of an exercise than anything else. Still, I recommend the poetry. The memoir may well be meant to be prose poetry, but I didn't find it up to Clifton's normal standards in Any respect.