Reviews for Skirts and Slacks: Poems

The average rating for Skirts and Slacks: Poems based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-03-17 00:00:00 Scott Stone The title of this poetry collection by di Piero reflects, I think, a common theme that runs across all of the poems: that although people are not the sum total of their possessions, everyday objects (or actions) can and do say much about our characters; and often, these plain, commonplace objects or actions can reflect little pearls of beauty. For example, in the poem "Finished Basement", di Piero is describing his mother and conveys a whole history of her character through a short phrase about her shoes - "cheap gold flats that made her look young and men look twice". And throughout this collection, there are similar insights tied to objects. From a technical standpoint, I enjoyed his choice of words and phrases, but I found that the rhythms that you often find embedded in good poetry to be a bit inconsistent. In my favorite poems in the book ("The Apples" and "South End") they were so fluid it made you read them twice. In a few of the other strong poems, you can feel the force behind the cadence of the language, and reading them makes you almost feel like the words are being spit out at you, the force is so strong ("Skirts and Slacks" and "The Bull Roarers", for example). However, in a few of them, the language seems rather dry, and I found the inserted stanza breaks to be unnatural (especially in "Oregon Avenue on a Good Day", "Leaving Bartram's Garden in Southwest Philadelphia", and "UFO"). Overall, a solid poetry collection. Recommended.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-02-22 00:00:00 Daisuke Tsutsui kind of boring, really. though a handful of passages did stand me hairs up