Thieves of Paradise (Wesleyan Poetry)

Rating:
Summary: one of the most original poets out there
Review: I had known of Komunyakaa for a while, but only recently began reading him. I'm glad I did. This is a book full of very different types of poems--some with regular stanza lengths, some with numbered sections, some short and without stanzas--and it is consistently excellent throughout. I think many poets tend to repeat themselves, but Komunyakaa seems to be one of the most courageous and technically sound poets there is. He is known for his poems about jazz, racial prejudice and the Vietnam War ( the entire section "Debriefing Ghosts" is a terrific sequence of anti-war poems), but I also enjoyed the ones not as easily catagorized. "Kosmos" is one of the best poems written to Walt Whitman I've ever read, and "The Glass Ark," about a couple unearthing fossils in the LaBrea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, is funny, playful and sexual without losing an odd seriousness.His language at times reminds me of Charles Simic--he seemingly finds the most disparate images that somehow seem "right"--but he is entirely on his own when it comes to combining long and short sequences, humor, sex, music and memory. Highly reccomended.

Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary
Review: I was stunned at the amount of intelligence and density in this poetry. I ordered this after hearing "The Deck" on NPR, as a gift for my wife, and we both consider it a treasure.