Reviews for Starting from Sleep: New and Selected Poems

The average rating for Starting from Sleep: New and Selected Poems based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-09-16 00:00:00 Larry Smith Lovely. Begins with earlier work, morphs into middle work, then finishes with final work. Stylistically, C.K. Williams changes a good bit through the transitions. All still excellent, in my taste'the poems simply vary in structural perspective. I think this gives the collected work a nice diversity that would otherwise be lost had the editor chosen to focus on one stage of Williams' work.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-08-28 00:00:00 Diego Argaez (Is probably closer to 4.5/5, but worth rounding up) CK Williams is a wizard-- I don't know if I would recommend him (or this volume) to a person who isn't interested in poetics; popular poets are popular for a reason, and Williams never got a ton of widespread fame. However, he won lots of poetry awards, and for good reason. His trademark style with long, almost prose-like lines, is a beautiful structure for his work. This volume stitches together poetry from throughout much of his career, showing his artistic evolution. Early on he was a bit more specific and political, which was fun- some of his work on the Vietnam War was great and stirring. But his best work is definitely later on, when he gets existential and personal. There's a sense of moral urgency, Williams demands that we think about our surroundings in ways that draw out a sense of curiosity and wonder. His environmental description made me smile so many times, and I've bookmarked about 7 poems (and over 15 specific quotes) to come back to in about a week just to redigest them. Not every poem hits deep, but such is the nature of a poetry collection. My only real issue is his sometimes crude depiction of sexuality and female characters. It never feels outright toxic to me, especially in a genre where so many male writers are outright pigs to women. Nevertheless, my asexual self cringed several times and often would quickly skim through the more sexual writings..