Portable Kisses

Collection of romantic poems by American poet, Tess Gallagher, more commonly referred to as Raymond Carver's wife.

There should be a golden rule about introductions that states 'writers should never refer to other writers who are indisputably greater than themselves'. Sadly, no such rule exists, and, in the introduction to this collection, Gallagher not only name-checks superior poems she actually quotes them (and also uses quotes to introduce each section of the volume). This leads to the uneasy realisation that these quotes are the best poems in the book.

It's not that Gallagher is a particularly bad poet, she just strikes me as a little overwrought, and are not the best love poems deceptively simple? Too often reading these poems, it show more seems that Gallagher had an idea of the kiss being a central romantic image, and then decided to write poetry about it. The first problem stems from the fact that she kills this central image by sheer volume (24 poems have the word kiss in the title alone) - it's like gilding the lily with a sledgehammer. The second problem is more fundamental, by picturing the image from so many angles, much of this poetry just isn't very good - full of average prose chopped up, clunky or staid metaphors, and failing to convey the emotion of love: too much of the head, and not enough of the heart.

Disappointing.

ps...Bill Knott, who on the cover states, "This is the best book of love poems since Neruda's., takes pleasure in describing himself as "the World's Worst Living Poet". show less