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Fortune
A collection of poetry by Joseph Millar.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 15, 2015
I have been on a bit of a Millar binge these past few months in which I have read all 3 of his collections. Fortune is the second and, appropriately, I would rank it between Blue Rust, which didn't really grab me, and Overtime, which knocked my socks off.
Sometimes fortune favors us, and sometimes it doesn't: in this book, we see some of both sides, but more of the unfavorable. Decay is a constant theme of these poems, and dealing with the looming specter of death. Towns, or buildings, are often crumbling. People are being put to death. Fires are burning out. Money is all spent. The "Poem for Rembrandt," which describes the painter's love for entropy ("You love what was tattered / and breaking down, the herring pier's pilings / eaten away, worn through by seaworms and lice" (58)), could easily be said about Millar as well.
Now having an idea of Millar's published trajectory, I can see how he gets from the action-packed Overtime to the minimalist Blue Rust. Fortune falls in the middle: "Hansel and Gretel's Father Explains" leans more toward the former, and "Doorway" toward the latter. The later-style poems tend to be just straight description, leaving the reader to fill things in around the words, which the earlier-style works are more explosive.
Echoing the incredible "Love Pirates" from Overtime, we get some beautiful lines about love and relationships (in the midst of many others about broken marriages and let-down children), like "Valentine Peace Offering": "I could spend all afternoon / hefting a pewter moon in my palm / trying to decide on your gift. What good / are words when you've walked away, / turned back, stammered, wept?" (39). Also, we have "Sanding Floors": "Let our quarrels be brief, sand / blown loose from the sills. Let the new resins, / glazed orange and gold, seep down into the grain" (62).
Before I wrote this review, I had this ranked as a four-star book. Now, after thinking about it more to write, I think I'll put it as a five. Millar is awesome, and deserves more attention.
Sometimes fortune favors us, and sometimes it doesn't: in this book, we see some of both sides, but more of the unfavorable. Decay is a constant theme of these poems, and dealing with the looming specter of death. Towns, or buildings, are often crumbling. People are being put to death. Fires are burning out. Money is all spent. The "Poem for Rembrandt," which describes the painter's love for entropy ("You love what was tattered / and breaking down, the herring pier's pilings / eaten away, worn through by seaworms and lice" (58)), could easily be said about Millar as well.
Now having an idea of Millar's published trajectory, I can see how he gets from the action-packed Overtime to the minimalist Blue Rust. Fortune falls in the middle: "Hansel and Gretel's Father Explains" leans more toward the former, and "Doorway" toward the latter. The later-style poems tend to be just straight description, leaving the reader to fill things in around the words, which the earlier-style works are more explosive.
Echoing the incredible "Love Pirates" from Overtime, we get some beautiful lines about love and relationships (in the midst of many others about broken marriages and let-down children), like "Valentine Peace Offering": "I could spend all afternoon / hefting a pewter moon in my palm / trying to decide on your gift. What good / are words when you've walked away, / turned back, stammered, wept?" (39). Also, we have "Sanding Floors": "Let our quarrels be brief, sand / blown loose from the sills. Let the new resins, / glazed orange and gold, seep down into the grain" (62).
Before I wrote this review, I had this ranked as a four-star book. Now, after thinking about it more to write, I think I'll put it as a five. Millar is awesome, and deserves more attention.
Displaying 1 of 1 review