Thursday, February 05, 2009

EChap Review: Well Enough

When I asked Daniel Sumrall if I should write a review for his chapbook Well Enough at goodreads, he told me not to bother because people were either indifferent or hostile to his work. This naturally made me more curious .
Although I had a million and one things to do, I decided to read his poetry. Sumrall’s style is approachable and easy to understand. I’m not struggling to understand his meaning and can enjoy his intent, at least with the first poem.
His beginning poem begs the question of privacy in an open space on telephone. In the public domain is about listening in to someone’s personal conversation and then seeing that the other person has caught you doing this and they know you have heard and understood their conversation. He compares this to “a knife’s intense precision when hands lack curative intent.”
Ah, guess I spoke too soon about easy to understand. “If landscape rolls out like a body” refuses to feed me the same way as the poem above now “I must penetrate the city’s architecture towers from erections and penetrations upon the earth…no more natural or necessary as the sea ripped with waves in a chiseled man’s abdomen.” gives me more food for thought and I can flow with sensuousness of the prose. I’m not at expert in poetry or about writing metaphor or similes, alliteration or any of these things, and I don’t claim to be. I feel words that make me move inside. I write what I feel and this is what Mr. Sumrall does too. Now I know why people are either indifferent or hostile to his poetry.

I am adding more links for people who would like to read more free chapbooks.

scantilycladpress
goldwakepress

7 comments:

  1. Well you have made me very curious about this chaps poetry myself Joy, where can we find it, are there any links online?
    Lorraine

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  2. Cool! Thanks for those links.

    It seems to me that since we are immersed in music and words before birth we naturally come to know what moves us -- my point being that an expert in poetry is probably EXACTLY who you are.

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  3. Anonymous12:29 AM

    It comes as no surprise to me that people were either "indifferent or hostile" to
    Summrall's Well Enough. Just look at his rating history on Goodreads!

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  4. don't quite understand this ratings biz as I checked his rating at goodreads & unless I don't understand - he had 3.96 out of 5?

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  5. Anonymous6:25 PM

    My point is that Sumrall rates great books written by others (inluding classics of literature!) at 1 or 2 stars and the most mundane, boring crap as 5 stars. The guy doesn't make sense and obviously has no clue when it comes to good literature.

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  6. if you want me to review something for you and would like to contact me privately please do so.
    I let people leave all types comments on my blog because wtf, just state what's on your mind -
    I believe in free speech.

    :)

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  7. Hey,Joy. I like Daniel's Gently Read Literature for the overview of new books. I haven't read his poetry yet, but I've read many of the chaps from Gold Wake Press. Issuu e-publishing platform is another place to read free.

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