Reviews for Motion

The average rating for Motion based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-11-18 00:00:00 Glenda Deyloff This is a surprisingly enjoyable, surprisingly powerful collection. I was expecting wussy stuff I could use in class to teach figures of speech, and instead I got art. I also took the time to tabulate how many good poems (as chosen by the editors and stamp-of-approval'd by me) were written about each sport, because that's the high level of reporting you've come to expect from whatever it is I do here. The results are sort of surprising: out of 128 poems, 35 were baseball poems (no surprise there) 19 basketball 12 boxing (this sport isn't even going to be allowed in ten years) 11 fishing/ hunting 10 running/ track and field 9 water related (swimming, surfing) 5 racket sports 5 football (!!) 22 misc (including one about curling-- who knew?) For a good taste of what's happening in this volume, check out Ferlinghetti's "Baseball Canto" and Dickey's "For the Death of Vince Lombardi."

Review # 2 was written on 2012-08-12 00:00:00 Jer Flores Published in 1996 to great acclaim, this collection explores relationships, loss, and womanhood. There is little about the themes of these poems that sets them apart, but Clanchy's use of language, particularly her understanding of verbs and of slant-rhyme, is very effective. These poems are not all successful -- some feel too generic, too pared back -- but when they are, they are very beautiful indeed.