STILL MORE SMALL POEMS

by Valerie Worth ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 1979

A pail, a bell (it ""gives metal a tongue""), a mushroom, grandmother's old beveled-glass door: again Valerie Worth turns humble and familiar objects into solid little poems that seem almost like pebbles held in the palm of the hand. Her thick sounds slow the tongue, mixing words and image: ""Old Tom/ Comes along/ The room/ In steps/ Laid down/ Like cards,/ Slow-paced/ But firm,/ All former/ Temptations/ Too humdrum/ To turn/ Him from/ His goal:/ His bowl."" Her subjects are all surface, but surface illuminated--just as the moon ""silvers"" her slug's trails of slime. If Worth's focus on the ordinary occasionally has her settling for the too-obvious reflection--""rags"" are "". . . Poor sad gray wads// That once were faithful/ Flannel pajamas,// Favorite pink-/ Flowered underpants""--more frequently her perception transforms even relatively ordinary thoughts into delightful observations: ""Somehow the hen,/ Herself all quirk/ and freak and whim,// Manages to make/ This egg, as pure/ And calm as stone."" The only original poetry in a season of anthologies--and it's real poetry, rare in any season.

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION