Last Night He Could Not Make It

he tried hard but he could not make it...so tonight he will (this last part is mine).

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I finished David Kirby's The Temple Gate Called Beautiful last night. This was my first Kirby book. Kirby's poetry is "talky" and is similar to Albert Golbarth. I'm not really sure what to do with some "talky" poetry and in Kirby's case I enjoyed a few poems, including the title poem, but found myself getting completely lost in the 3-5, 5-7 page poems that were littered with one literary or artistic or historical reference after another. I often felt like I do when I watch Go Diego, Go with my son Brayden...1/3 paying attention, 1/3 amused, and 1/3 nodding off. Now, I know this isn't entirely fair to Mr. Kirby which is why I've ordered 3 more of his books to get a broader perspective because there were moments I laughed and had fun reading his poems so I'm trying to be pragmatic about it. Perhaps it's Kirby's barrage of artistic/literary references and a landscape that feels entirely irrelevant, and quite frankly, academic, that makes it more difficult to engage.

I have to add that I'm not adverse to "talky" poetry. I feel that Paul Guest, Bob Hicock, and Jason Bredle (these are just a few examples from what I've read in the past 12-18 months) work in "talky" modes but with very different typographies. And in the case of Jason Bredle, I often find myself euphoric, happy, etc. after I read one of his poems. I feel like I'm taking a cross country trip but taking state highways, especially the two lane highways in CO (a little treacherous but very scenic) instead of the interstates, and as a result, I witness a lot of the nuisances of the human experience that I would never noticed if I had just hoped on I-35 and headed north to Des Moines (you know, point to A to point B, point B to point C). BJ has a great description, which is probably more apt, of the often rewarding journey Bredle's poetry takes the reader on.

Thus, I would rate (on the Netflix rating scale of course) David Kirby's The Temple Gate Called Beautiful as a 2 1/2 stars out of 5, which is somewhere between "I don't like it" and "I like it." Ultimately, I may need to read the book again.

I always feel awkward and guilty being semi-critical of a poet. Should I???

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Farkle scoreboard:

• Gavin = 14
• Elijah = 13
• Me = 11
  
• Megan = 9

Yes, I have moved into 3rd place.

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Bread crumbs for the song lyric: the birth place of Demi Moore. Now you can try to guess the song lyric.