Daily Glance--Roger Reeves
Roger Reeves' King Me is a book that ranges widely in terms of literary and geographical references. We have poems from Tupelo, MS, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Whitman peaks through in poems, but so do school songs ("thighbone connected to our knee bone"). And while the individual poems are interesting, what really strikes me in the book are individual lines.
And the javelins we sink into each other's sides.
Or
Dear Lord, ride me as the meat-bees ride decay
from one day to the next.
Or
The locusts, slung low in the trees,
remained in our breath.
Or
Even the trees must perform sorrow.
After reading through the book, I want to go though and hear certain lines repeated to me for the sound and meaning ripped from context, as when you replay the same section of a song repeated for its energy.
King Me is Reeves debut collection, but it does not feel like one. The poems in it are already wonderfully done.
And the javelins we sink into each other's sides.
Or
Dear Lord, ride me as the meat-bees ride decay
from one day to the next.
Or
The locusts, slung low in the trees,
remained in our breath.
Or
Even the trees must perform sorrow.
After reading through the book, I want to go though and hear certain lines repeated to me for the sound and meaning ripped from context, as when you replay the same section of a song repeated for its energy.
King Me is Reeves debut collection, but it does not feel like one. The poems in it are already wonderfully done.
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