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Summary
Summary
Richard Siken's Crush , selected as the 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems driven by obsession and love. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism. In the world of American poetry, Siken's voice is striking.
In her introduction to the book, competition judge Louise Gl#65533;ck hails the "cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power, [and] purgatorial recklessness" of Siken's poems. She notes, "Books of this kind dream big. . . . They restore to poetry that sense of crucial moment and crucial utterance which may indeed be the great genius of the form."
Reviews (1)
Library Journal Review
Winner of the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, Siken's debut collection derives its energy from the friction among bodies, selves, and lovers. There are many love poems "told slant," as Emily Dickinson would have said, bearing such titles as "Little Beast," "Planet of Love," and "You Are Jeff." But it is the longer poems that really afford Siken the right to sing. These play with language and alter meaning but always return to their lyrical roots. In "Dirty Valentine," for example, he writes, "I swallow your heart and it crawls/ right out of my mouth./ You swallow my heart and flee, but I want it back now, baby. I want it back." Still other poems, like "Snow and Dirty Rain," recall Sylvia Plath's vivid way with metaphor ("the knives in the kitchen are singing/ for blood"). Siken also beautifully describes things we notice but seldom see written about. Occasionally, however, his metaphors don't click: in "The Torn-Up Road," he writes, "There's a thing in my stomach about this. A simple thing. The last rung." This book will excite patrons and be long remembered. Recommended for all collections.-Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, IN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.