Winter's Journey

June 28, 2010
Dobyns is well known for his mystery novels, and, in poetry circles, for talky, curmudgeonly poems that can be funny, deeply cynical, and heartbreaking at the same time. This 13th volume riffs on current events from the tail-end of George W. Bush's time in office, staring down the hard facts and disasters of the past few years and wondering what a thinking person can do about them. The opening poem wonders about a poet's—and citizen's—responsibility to speak up during wartime, to say something meaningful; about the poet John Ashbery and his imitators (and, by extension, many caught in the sway of what Dobyns sees as a public discourse of nonsense), Dobyns asks, "is nonmeaning intended to obscure/ language to hide meaning?" In the same poem, he calls Auden "The Great Twitterer," and in the next, explains "the demand-side/ economics of poetry." Elsewhere, after noting how a pop singer's hair was sold on the Internet, Dobyns asks, "why not gather up/ my gray locks and try to make two or three bucks?" One is often tempted to yell "get over it" at Dobyns for these disenchanted columns of verse, but, then, it's hard not to think, often, that he's got a point about all the things he hates.

June 15, 2010

Dobyns is given to wry, philosophical observation in poems that capture place and the most ordinary of details, the curious things so often overlooked, in simple yet memorable language. Also an accomplished novelist (e.g., Boy in the Water), he knows well how to weave a story and hold a reader's attention. However, he is troubled in these troubling times, and, turning to lengthy, loosely wrought prose poems, he indulges his pensive nature as he tries to make sense of the world around us. His daily walks with his dog allow for a comfort in the familiar, but he cannot shake his angst and frustration: "Not so long ago Harvard's top poetry critic told me and a few others that she took pride in never once having voted. It was hard to feel more than sad, but, to me, she vanished." In contrast, Dobyns's poetry refuses to be separated from the world. VERDICT These meditations are considerations of the big issues, the important questions that would be difficult to miss and wrong to ignore. Poets cannot be expected to provide the answers, but Dobyns does not shy away from elucidating the questions. Highly recommended.--Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia

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