This new collection from best-selling poet and novelist Stephen Dobyns focuses on the hard, ephemeral truth of mortality, and includes the section "Sixteen Sonnets for Isabel" about the recent death of his wife. In true Dobyns fashion, these poems grip and guide readers into a state of empathy, raising the question of how one lives and endures in the world.
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[All stories are sad when they reach their end / the rain comes; the night falls; Malone dies alone / with little bites, the pragmatic devours the idealistic - STORIES] ***(BOA Editions Ltd., 19 September 2016, ebook, 120 pages, borrowed from the National Poetry Library)
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This is my first time reading the poet. I really enjoyed the poems in this collection. Based on the title of the collection and the cover image, the poems are not what I was expecting at all. I have particular tastes in poetry. I love specific poetry types and loathe others with very little leeway. The Day's Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech is packed with the kind of poems I enjoy the most. Most of the poems are short, barely a page but have as much depth as much longer poems. The poems are vivid, rich, powerful and moving. I really enjoyed Stories, Niagara Falls, Parable: Friendship, Exercise and Cut Loose.
