Earthy, particular, funny; poignantly, tenderly human.

I must be on my tenth read of this collection. And I'll probably double that in the next few years. Something about Laux just draws you back, again and again. Could be what a wordsmith she is, that rare combination of raw and deep, brilliance and simplicity. A new way of looking at myself.

Laux combines what most poets cannot: a deep sensibility and accessibility. Each page was candy, I kept reading and reading, and well, that's the last page. I didn't want to put it down. Time to pick up her next book. It's that good.

My favorite book of poetry. Includes "The Word" and "The Shipfitter's Wife," which appeared in Best American Poetry.

The first book of contemporary poetry that I loved.

Beautifying the ugly through succinct description. There's nothing more to say. You must read this book of poems if you aim to write poems, and if you're devoid of beauty in your life.

I loved this book especially the poem Pearl about Janis Joplin.

Melancholic.. Poignant.. Sarcastic.. An honest and moody tone.. A continuous provocation of visual images.. It's like she is narrating her daily life, her break downs and her nostalgic memories with a simple yet a very surprising language .. BeautifulI was introduced to Laux' poetry after randomly reading her poem titled "Shipfitter's Wife" from this collection titled "Smoke".Here is a video with the poem recited by Kara Johnstad and accompanied with music.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZl2e...

This collection brilliantly shines light on frequently overlooked corners everywhere.

I have found that the poets who speak to me are the ones who find the magic in ordinary life. This is what Dorianne does with all her work. This volume in particular has a great deal of pain in it, clearly she had suffered the loss of someone very close to her. But she is able to express that pain in a way that is so clear and understandable. One of the things I find most appealing about her work is the ordinariness of her language. I have shared several of her poems with my daughter, as a way o...

Poetry. I really enjoy Laux's writing. One of my favorite things about her is the way she uses enjambment -- breaking up a syntactic unit over two lines without a punctuated pause; basically the end of the line is not the end of the thought -- it makes things unpredictable, unsettling, because anything can happen between one line and the next. This book has a lot of death and mourning in it. It's calm and angry and smoky, yet there's still that lust for life that you find in Laux's poetry, the l...

His voice, toward the end, was a soft coal breakingopen in the little stove of his heart.. . . other deaths came on, as if by permission—beloved teacher, cousin, a lover slipped from my lifethe way a rope slithers from your gripLast Words. . . Somewherea Dumpster is ratcheted open by the clawsof a black machine. All down the blocksomething inside you opens and shuts.SmokeDoesn't this part give you the chills?We nod in agreement, then settle againinto our separate worlds. In mineI'm beholden to a...

These are accessible verses grounded in a poetic transformation of the tangibles of everyday objects in everyday life. There are radiant journeys that lovers of poetry, and lovers of life, can be swept into. I find myself wanting to swear eternal fealty to the doctrine and erotic tenor of Laux's magnificent Prayer.Broken into two sections—Smoke, and Fire. Paradoxically, I overwhelmingly preferred the sensuality, focus, and intensity of the Smoke section over Fire.I was jarred by two clumsy cultu...

As I looked at other reviews of this book, it seems that many readers find a great resonance with this collection. I find that my hard doesn't intersect with Laux's hard in ways that connect me to these poems, though I did enjoy the way she could deliver in the final lines.

The first half of "Smoke" is 'Smoke' - every poem is crushing. Lots are about death and loss - I had to stop reading at work because it was making me too weepy. I LOVED the first half. The second half - 'Fire' is still great - but not as magical for me as the first half, but still masterful writing (duh). Portlandians will like the Oregon references.One of my favorites:HOW IT WILL HAPPEN, WHEN There you are, exhausted from another night of crying,curled up on the couch, the floor, at the foot of...

I wrote previously, in my review of Laux's Facts About the Moon, that she shows a talent that spans beyond a particular style or subject matter, a talent that few actually have. This book continues that wonderful effort of how every poem is like reading a short story, in a way, in that Laux takes the time to let us in, get a feel of how she is approaching this poem, as opposed to the others (which can be fault of those who hover too closely to a particular subject matter, in that they sometimes

Excellent book of poetry broken into two sections: Smoke and Fire, as in Where there's smoke there's fire. Here is a random example: THE WORD by Dorianne Laux You called it screwing, what we did nightson the rug in front of the mirror, drapedover the edge of a hotel bed, on balconiesoverlooking the dark hearts of fir treesor a city of flickering lights. You'dwhisper that word into my earas if it were a thing you could taste---a sliver of fish, a swirl of chocolateon the tongue. I knew onlythe ro...

An entire book of this: the banal holding hands with the breathtaking.Dorianne Laux is your neighbor. The gal whose car needs an oil change, the gal who cuts her hair in the kitchen while her cigarette sits on the edge of the sink, a sink with cracked enamel and a few yellow nicotine singes along the countertop- where she forgot she left a cigarette burning.She is our neighbor, our kid's teacher going through a rough divorce, the gal who has worked at the corner supermarket for so long, that she...

The poems in this collection are simple and heart-breaking. Simple because of Laux's conversational tone and easy way with profound metaphors. Heart-breaking because of her candid honesty which allow her poems to speak with authority and, at the same time, an aching vulnerability. I recommend this book to anyone with a soul.Ray At 14Bless this boy, born with the strong face of my older brother, the one who I loved most,who jumped with me from the roof of the playhouse, my hand in his hand. On Fr...

Didn't she burn herself up for us, shaking us alive? --from "Pearl"Reading poems by different authors in a journal or anthology is like being at a party with lots of witty people, going from group to group, sampling subjects like hors d'oeuvres. Every now and then, you meet someone interesting enough to spend the whole evening with.For me, Dorianne Laux is an author who's worth the time. She's a fearless--sometimes even a ruthless--writer, who's unflinching as she tackles subjects like death an