POETRY

Paper Banners

Copper Canyon. Nov. 2023. 112p. ISBN 9781556596735. pap. $17. POETRY
COPY ISBN
In her seventies, Miller (Who Is Trixie the Trasher? and Other Questions) writes what may be her swan song in this, her excellent thirteenth book. These poems often look at death—her own or her loved ones—from a distance and up close. Her style is evocative and emerges from short lines, repetition, enjambment, run-on sentences, parenthetical expressions, powerful images, and exactly right endings. She is a master of the ending whose implications make one want to read the poem again. This collection holds together topics ranging from Virginia Woolf and Osip Mandelstam, to apricot trees and love, to religion, Hamlet, and loss. The best poem here is “Elegy with Last Lines in the Form of a Haiku,” in which Miller speaks of dying and compares it to a “Moonbeam on the bay” shining as a woman “slips silently into/ a satin nightgown.” Most of her poems are haiku-like and have vivid connotative imagery. Once a painter, Miller is attracted to painterly metaphors, and readers can see that in this collection as she elegantly fuses descriptions of nature with reflections on her feelings.
VERDICT Miller is able to go inside her subjects and draw readers with her. That experience makes this collection one for all libraries.
Comment Policy:
  • Be respectful, and do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article, or other commenters. Take on the idea, not the messenger.
  • Don't use obscene, profane, or vulgar language.
  • Stay on point. Comments that stray from the topic at hand may be deleted.
  • Comments may be republished in print, online, or other forms of media.
  • If you see something objectionable, please let us know. Once a comment has been flagged, a staff member will investigate.


RELATED 

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?