Galway Kinnell's twelfth book of poems is powerful and thrilling. Imperfect Thirst includes beautiful love poems and approaches elemental subjects with a remarkable balance of good nature and holy dread: recollections of childhood, snapshots of impassive cruelty, reflections on art and nature. This energetic collection will prove once again why Galway Kinnell was one of America's masters of the art.
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[Its work is memory - THE PEN] ***(Mariner Books, 30 August 1996, first published 1994, ebook, 96 pages, borrowed from the National Poetry Library)
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I have been a fan of Kinnell's for years, having read numerous poems in anthologies. I'd never read a full collection before. So I knew I had to read Imperfect Thirst. I'm glad I did. The poems in this collection are hugely enjoyable. This is a diverse collection dealing with themes like love, memories of the past, impassive cruelty and reflections on the diver world around us. The language used is clear and precise, perfect. Imperfect Thirst is deep and intense at times. I enjoyed every poem. Rapture is the stand-out poem, absolutely astonishing.
