On Days Such as This

Description

I was struck by several things in Gail Dendy’s latest collection: her rich and apt use of metaphor, her ability to project accurately into situations which she herself had not experienced (eg. male persona, motherhood) and her tight control of language. Many of the lines, even whole stanzas, read like the Imagist poetry of Stevens and Pound and Williams: crisp, clean lines evoking vivid, focused pictures. I loved the occasional, unpredictable insertion of rhyme and rhythm, reminiscent of Eliot. It was never forced, always apt and more pleasurable for being gently surprising. Several poems affected me particularly. I loved Billboard: Large Exclamation Mark, The Book, The Deserted Beach, The Edge of the World, Old Photographs, Fingernails, String, and Room For Us Both; in others, there were particular lines or images that worked brilliantly for me (the first stanza of Where You Are, for instance). And of course the eponymous poem, On Days Such As This, which is sublime.

– Review by Jeffrey Cohen