Poems
(Alfred A. Knopf: December 1986)
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Reviews:
This powerful, provocative collection of 42 poems introduces a poet who speaks with authority and eloquence. Often his subjects are commonplace his wife, dog and children, his work and the poems are set at home in Michigan and abroad, in Ireland and Italy. (Several of the pieces are about Argyle, a mythic Irish character.) Like his father, Lynch is an undertaker, and the poems that address death here are sagacious and overcome the risk of morbidity by embracing life while facing death. Other standouts are his tender meditation on his daughter, "Skating with Heather Grace," and the heartfelt, gritty perceptions of "Tatyana." Most of the pieces are composed in pentameters, the majority written in a capricious blank verse. Although at times the meter suffers from excessive use of run-over lines, elsewhere there is grace and control, indeed virtuosity. Lynch is a poet with something to say and something worth listening to.
Publisher's Weekly
First book, Lynch speaks directly and boldly, invoking ritual by bringing the reader close to its performance: "Soon as I am able/ I intend to turn/ to gold myself.'' A Midwesterner who earns his living as an undertaker, Lynch writes poems that unpretentiously rehearse the dreams of the dying as they celebrate the everchanging relationships of the livingof four children, of a marriage in transition. There is craft and careful language, at times a Yeatsian echo, as in the three ``Argyle'' pieces for the sin-eater of old Ireland who serves the dead. Throughout, Lynch traces his ties to the past, and though his poems sometimes dazzleas do the metaphysical conceits of ``For the ex-wife on what I don't wish you''as often they are ways of ``learning gravity,'' Heather Grace's task in the title poem.
Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, English Dept., Indiana Univ. of Pennsylvania Library Journal
Excellent work of readable honest poetry, June 16, 1997
Thomas Lynch is one of the great poets of our time. "Skating with Heather Grace" made me laugh, cry, think about life... and death... and the time in between. Even if you do not like poetry, you will enjoy this book. I have never read a poet more honest and creative than Lynch. Two of my personal favorite poems of the book (I have many) are called "Where it Came From" and "Woman Gardening." This would be an excellent place to start for someone first reading Lynch. It shows how clever he is as well as the great sensitivity he posesses for describing a singular emotional feeling. If at all possible, finish with "Learning Gravity," a brilliant poem (and the longest of the book - most are very short). It's a poem that can only be deeply appreciated when you get to know the author and his style as well as disposition. Don't be upset because he is an undertaker by trade. While that plays heavily in the book it is not the defining aspect of the man and his poems. Very Highly Recommended!
Reviewer: A reader
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