Kirkus Reviews QR Code
THE MALIBU AND OTHER POEMS by Myra Cohn Livingston

THE MALIBU AND OTHER POEMS

By

Pub Date: Sept. 8th, 1972
Publisher: Atheneum

Forty short, reasonably proficient rhymes about familiar things and feelings, with delicate black and white ""decorations"" on heavy, cream-colored paper that gives the whole a look of quality. Some of the verses might be described as second-rate Swenson in their arrangement, cadence, and internal rhyme (""Smooth it feels/ wheels/ in the groove of the gray/ roadway/ speedway/ freeway// long along the in and out/ of gray car/ red car/ blue car""); others offer prosaic observations (of a ""little kid"" trying to roller skate) or commonplace sentiments (the ""purple mountains"" really are). Many of the latter are more like preliminary notes than finished poems and few have the transforming sharpness and surprise we keep hoping for, but the modesty of tone and specificity of subject are commendable.