Things My Mother Told Me (Essential Poets Series 95)

Rating:
Summary: A True Poet
Review: Gillan is a true poet. These poems speak honestly and from the heart. Anyone interested in poetry with these qualities will be happy to add this book to his/her collection.

Rating:
Summary: A Life in Poetry
Review: I love this book. It is honest, direct, moving, and explores the territory of the ordinary life of a woman in poems that lift off the page, they are so lyrical and brilliant. Maria Mazziotti Gillan leads us on a journey into her Italian-American working-class girlhood and explores the complexity of carrying that girl inside her for the rest of her life. This a book about relationships within a family, mothers, fathers, children,husband, friends, place --all are clearly delineated and evocatively expressed. Anyone interested in Italian American literature or working class literature or literature by women should read this book. It is wonderful. i keep it next to my bed to read it againa and again.

Rating:
Summary: Not poetry
Review: This is not poetry. This is maudlin, banal sentiment formatted to look like poetry. Poetry is compressed, surprising, insightful, fresh, musical. This isn't.