Out of Danger: Poems

One of my favorite poetry books here. Unfortunately Mr. Fenton doesn't seem to write a lot of it. Anyways I always think of internal combustion engines when I think of ways to describe it. Rhymes within rhymes--it seems that not only can a line rhyme with the one before it--it can also rhyme with itself--in fact his technique seems to continually propel the poem forward. But that is not all--because as an observer of the world in a social, and a political and a historical sense Mr. Fenton is in my eyes an almost fearless poet of great intellectual gifts. Now there is some of his other work apart from his poetry that I don't particularly care for but this book is really very fine.

This anthology, years ago, is what began my fascinating with poetry and with writing. I realized in these pages, that poetry could be simple, beautiful, and thought provoking all at the same time. I bought it when my creative writing teacher (in high school) told us to find a poem we hadn't read before that "spoke to us" and memorize it for the class. My poem was out of this collection, titled "I'll Explain", and to this day it's one of my favorite poems. If you're a reader, I recommend this book. Fenton hasn't come out with many collections, and this one stands above the rest as far as I'm concerned both in quality and in accessability. This is one of those collections where nearly every poem is worth coming back to both days and years show more down the road, and at least for me, it proved a great deal of inspiration as well. If you're remotely interested in reading or writing poetry, this book comes highly recommended. show less

arrived on my shelves after a blessed breakup - sheer idiocy on my part - see J - my most recent memory of Fenton is from his article on Downton Abbey where he accused Julian Fellowes of jumping the shark - spot on

More lyrical reflections on contemporary and political themes.