OPEN DOORWAYS

by Philip Appleman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 27, 1976

Open Doorways is sardonic, proselike poetry which seems to echo both Edward Arlington Robinson and Robert Frost and, when Appleman finds a subject equal in its acerbity to his wit (as in ""Alive"" or ""On a Morning Full of Sun""), the results can be quite satisfying. Though there is neither the music nor the imagistic intensity of the lyric here, there are some pleasantly surprising images: ""The voices like/ clay bells in the wind,"" or ""I remember/ the blind camel at Isfahan/ plodding in circles, grinding the bloody husks of pomegranates and/ in the empty bazaar/ your slow step in the dark."" But images like these are infrequent. At other times, Appleman seems to be trying to make poetry out of sheer rhetoric and will power; what he gets are cliches and phrases so overwritten that they numb the senses: ""headlines/ hack at my heart, but can't cut""; "". . . a kite from the sea bled/ red pain across the sky""; ""and the summer tides went on in the image of love:/ in and out/ in and out."" Of course, those who like Appleman's poetry will forgive him these lines and enjoy his irony. But for those as yet unacquainted with his work, expect sense rather than sensibility in Open Doorways.

Pub Date: Sept. 27, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION