[New-Poetry] Poetry bestsellers

[Anthony Lawrence]

I think perhaps she did do it differently. She was able to write in a  
sentimental way
and get away with it, at least with many, many readers. The ice was/ 
is/very thin in a lot of her poems,
yet despite my ambivalence towards much of her work, I've gone back  
to some poems.
Compared to Collins, who drives me mad with his poems about writing  
poetry, when Oliver
is self-referential her subterfuge often throws a smoke screen over it.




On 07/10/2006, at 9:11 AM, Bob Grumman wrote:

> She did all this differently from other mainstreamers?  Maybe beat  
> them to the punch?  I haven't read many of her poems, but those I  
> have read seemed like a lot of other contemporary mainstream poems  
> on the very standard subjects she seems to me to be writing about.
>
> --Bob G.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Anthony Lawrence"  
> <ajlawrence1 at bigpond.com>
> To: "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp;Views" <new- 
> poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
> Sent: Friday, October 06, 2006 5:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Poetry bestsellers
>
>
>> I think perhaps it's more a case of what she's done. Her book  
>> House  of Light and other early works
>> arrested the inner attention of readers with the way she wrote  
>> about  the natural world.
>> She was able to write with great simplicity that worked by way of  
>> a layering of the senses,
>> in which a child-like surprise and delight was at work within  
>> real  craft. Obviously readers
>> don't mind that she's still writing the same poem over and over.  
>> When you're on a good thing...
>>
>>
>> On 07/10/2006, at 7:58 AM, Bob Grumman wrote:
>>
>>> I understand Collins's popularity, but how about Oliver's?   
>>> What's  she doing that a hundred other mainstream poets aren't?
>>>
>>> --Bob G.
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