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Some of these poems do feel like short story rehearsals, but I guess I don't care. I love Dybek. He paints pictures better than Edward Hopper. His language is gorgeous and surreal. His characters are both left behind and transported to a more hopeful future. They sail through life "led by a runaway hat". They are like "scarves streaming...vapor trails".
Makes you want to write, to notice better. The poems are about abstract notions: love, memory, childhood, ethnicity, family, religion, but via tangible scenes, objects: bouncing pearl beads, basement disrobings, hubcap mirrors, novena incense. Wonderful. Now for one of the novels...
Favorites:- "Windy City"- "Angelus"- "Current"
that's some real fine poems... chicago style you know?
I think this is one of those collections that benefit from more than one reading. I enjoyed it, but it didn't blow me away. However, it's still a worthwhile read for his ability to transform towns into insidious microcosms.
Love the language in this one. Raw and gritty with unexpected imagery. Very nice!
The poems in Streets In Their Own Ink seem like clear relatives of The Coast of Chicago. Dybek roots us in the concrete (the city) and then takes us another layer deeper, dissecting and reassembling it all. Dybek tends toward the lyrical, narrative-driven poem (and occasionally this can feel a little too explanatory). At any rate, I found myself taking notes and recording all my favorite moments in this book (and there were many). It's a gorgeous collection and I plan to buy my own copy.
This was one of the 2006 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rus...
This reading of Dybek's poetry comes as a bit of late research on my part. The first section of this collection hit home for me. It seems that we both grew up in a primarily Polish Catholic neighborhood. Many things that Dybek writes about, I experienced from the red brick streets to the biker bar (where I used to deliver the newspaper). It was an immigrant part of town and many of the grandparents did not speak English or very limited English. The poems captured a bit of lost youth. "Ginny's Ba...
Dybek should stick to writing prose for adolescents. Leave poetry to the poets.
I could live in his poems.
someone sweet and smart gave me this book, inscribed with a little poetic message just for me (shucks), so my thoughts on it are closely tied in with that memory rather than the poems themselves. But I like it.
Some real grittiness in these poems, wonderful street tales, but the technique and skill here is impeccable.
Dark, stark, gorgeous. When I finished I found myself wishing there was more of him to read. And then I find out he has not one but TWO books coming out in 2014...!!
Incredible. This is the best book of poetry I've read in a long time. Dybek never disappoints. Earnest and marvelous.
I liked the majority of this collection, and loved several of them. When a poem evokes a memory so vivid that it startles the reader, that's a great poem. This happened at least twice in this book.
Expected more.
No offense to Stuart Dybek, whose books I've often enjoyed, but these are the worst poems I've read in years. As evidence, I submit these lines from "Christening":A syncronized wingbeat and the flockgusted into a syllable and vanished,a cry less to do with languagethan the vocalization of snow,its meaning a music hidden from words...If this is the language a poet praised for writing about the streets uses, no wonder the world doesn't make sense and politicians lie to us nonstop. On the donkey di...
Dybek should stick to writing about Catholic adolescent boys (although that gets a bit tiresome) and leave poetry to the poets.
