Sunny's bookshelf
Sunny's bookshelf photo by Judy Solomon

Online book reviews since 2011, the very best in reviewing – connecting good readers with equally good writers

Poets’ Guide to America

Sign up to receive our latest reviews by email

What would happen if poets conquered America? The answer to this question lies in a clever collection of poems that maps of the United States. Co-written by Pushcart Prize nominees John F. Buckley and Martin Ott, Poets’ Guide to America is a whimsical introduction to subcultures across the country.

Buckley and Ott give us some of their revelations in the poem, If Poets Had Conquered America. Had bards taken over the land:

They would have landed
on shores expanding freely with verse, each
tongue a new state, forgotten zeppelins
tethered to clouds. The first winter would be
the easiest, inaugurated by an impromptu salon,
voices teeming with game and fresh rhymes.

The co-authors’ musings in this poem serve as a prelude to what you will find in the rest of the book. While free verse scales the Rocky Mountains and navigates the Puerto Rican desert, the poets also give a nod to traditional forms in pieces such as Pantoum in Pittsburgh and Ghazal in Georgia. Even within the constraints of form, Buckley and Ott manipulate language in comical ways and have an exceptional knack for word play. These poems are designed to please our auditory senses–just read this pair of lines from Sestina in Seattle: Espresso rapids strew the bully base/across palates where paddle wails of grunge.

On this unique expedition, Buckley and Ott hone in on highly specific sets of details. Through their keen perspective, landmarks as heavily trafficked as the Las Vegas strip become anything but cliché. They bypass the big welcome sign that thousands of tourists take pictures of, and they focus their lens on all 8,000 fish at the Mermaid Lounge. With each stop on Buckley and Ott’s itinerary, readers get their stanza’s worth of sights and sounds.

Poets’ Guide to America gives us something that the traditional textbooks do not–a musicality of language that only poetry can achieve and the liberties to linger on details that get overshadowed by the main points and big attractions.     -J.M.

Add your thoughts and comments...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Share this Review
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Related Reviews

Facing The Mountain

Facing The Mountain

    Daniel James Brown’s Facing the Mountain, A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II, is the rich telling of the plight faced

Read More »
Sisters in Arms

Sisters in Arms

  Sisters in Arms – Kaia Alderson introduces a subset of a distinct group of WWII women deployed overseas during the war. Welcome to the

Read More »

About the Reviewer

Sign up for reviews by email

You’ll get email updates from Bookin’ with Sunny when we add a new review or blog post, and we never share your email with anyone else.

Shopping in-store Fun!

Support your local community’s economic growth by shopping for books at your independent bookstore in person, online at their website, or by phone.