The Stars That Fell: Poems

by Gary Short

Description

The Stars That Fell infuses poetry with a new meaning for modern Nevada and the American West. Using autobiographical details and testimony mixed with Nevada history and folklore, this poetry collection focuses on and includes the scars left by the mining industry, the military complex, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples to tell the story of the complex relationship between the people and the land. Through his poems, Gary Short illuminates the humanity of the people of Nevada and the show more American West, specifically the rural communities that often get left out of the narrative. Focusing on family and the relationships between characters, he extends feelings of hope, solace, forgiveness, and even wisdom throughout this collection. show less

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alixbee 3 reviews

There's a sort of shimmer to this collection, not like the shimmer and twinkle of light but the wavy shimmer of hot air air:- memories and objects are distorted and mistaken: a bird becomes a shoe, a young man becomes a grave, poppies become a dead deer, the past and the present flicker in between each other, echoing and impacting each other forward and backward.
From a technical standpoint the meter and/or line structure didn't always work for me, I found myself tripping over a line break a few times but overall this was a really strong book for me, and for as many times as I struggled with structure, there was a passage that moved me greatly.
'Frame Blue' and 'Found in Any Gray' were particular favorites.