Words for Empty and Words for Full (Pitt Poetry Series)

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So I know pp. This day as a version of the last pp. In the loop pp. Hope is a thing with feathers that smacks into a window pp. To find the new world pp. Meditation on a false spring pp. Minutes of the minutes pp. In the future, the future will be the past pp. Call me a lyre, I dare you pp. Making the list I will never make pp.

Access Check

Getting in line pp. Learning to swim pp.

Tree of life pp. From the history of grade school pp. For the time capsule pp. All law enforcement is local pp. First do no harm pp. An account of lately pp.

One interpretation of your silence pp. Do you too always feel differently the same? People who live in stones should cast glass houses pp. Nov 03, Biscuits rated it it was amazing.

Dec 31, Matt rated it really liked it. I've read some Hicok before, and generally like him, though I thought his last book wasn't as good as people led me to believe sorry, Caroline. But this one is all that and more-- dynamic and lyrical while still being grounded in the human experience and Hicok's own admitted failings, these poems are serious but still playful, committed without being ponderous, and investigations that don't feel dippy. The subject of the poems here, by and large, seem to be the War, and coterminous with that, t I've read some Hicok before, and generally like him, though I thought his last book wasn't as good as people led me to believe sorry, Caroline.

The subject of the poems here, by and large, seem to be the War, and coterminous with that, the state of the Nation-- these are political poems, and political poems of the end of the Bush years and the start, the very start of the Obama-nation. It's sometimes just bracing to hear someone articulate what you already feel, and a small part of my enthusiasm might be attributable to that. But the poems themselves also have a lot to recommend them: But it's not like that's all these poems do, because that'd get boring, too, after a while. The book also has a section of poems on the VaTech shooter, who apparently was a student in Hicok's writing class; I remember hearing from Nikki Giovanni around this subject at the time, but I can readily believe it was really Hicok who worked with Cho.

The poems are interesting, and smart, and also have a certain rubber-necker appeal. They are challenging to our sense of what happened and how we should feel, and that feels productive when you read them. But I feel, too, that the section, and the experience, doesn't really resolve; it's not a major flow; it's a hard experience to process, I'm sure.

But breaking all those poems into their own section, and ending that section, creates an expectation of completing that I don't think the suite of poems fully achieves. Still, a fun read full of compelling poems I'd gladly spend more time with. May 25, Sian Griffiths rated it it was amazing Shelves: Five stars isn't enough. I want to give this book all the stars in the night sky.

I love so much about this book, but perhaps most of all, I love its balance--how it is personal but political, how it is serious but self-mocking, how it is painful and funny. For example, this moment, in "Time Capsule," tries to explain to the future the irony of bailing out bankers but not the homeless: They were not, these fire-barrel people, given money, they were not because it sends the wrong message, because a c Five stars isn't enough.

They were not, these fire-barrel people, given money, they were not because it sends the wrong message, because a contract is a contract because in America, we lift ourselves up by our bootstraps, which is impossible, have you tried? You can lift one leg at a time and hop or just stand there with your lone lifted leg looking like a great blue heron or an OK blue heron Over and over, Hicok made me laugh out loud at the same moment that my heart was breaking.

His poems about the Virginia Tech shootings the campus where he teaches made as much sense of the senseless as I have yet seen--and yet they're not smug. Hicok doesn't take a posture of enlightenment; he doesn't blame. If, in a line, he seems close to either of these positions, he immediately mocks himself. The humility, the humanity, the confusion, and the sincerity of these poems combined to make this among my all time favorite poetry collections. Aug 03, Jenny Reading Envy rated it really liked it Shelves: It is clearly ironic that the description for this volume includes the NYT review for his previous volume as of 7.

That couldn't be any farther from the truth in these poems! The first third touches on aging and a failing economy and the fear of dying as his wife goes through major surgery either to fight or limit cancer. Then comes the big blow - a segment of poems written after the Virginia Tech shooting. App It is clearly ironic that the description for this volume includes the NYT review for his previous volume as of 7. Apparently Hicok was one of Cho's professors, and of course several of his colleagues and students were killed in those events. He tries to process it through the poems, and fails, and it is the most rare depiction of grief and the rest of emotions that go along with something so inhumane that I have ever read.

I was bawling my eyes out, actually, particularly from In the loop: A boy who felt that he was nothing, who erased and entered that erasure, and guns that are good for nothing It is the strongest reaction I've had in a long time.

Jan 02, Michael rated it really liked it. This book sat idle on my shelf for a time after I'd first opened it. Then suddenly I was immersed into the world that is Bob Hicok. The rhythm that these sometimes awkward phrases contain is one that disorients and rewards the reader: In this case, the Midwest. This book lets us in, holds the door, and shadows our footsteps as we tear down that old shed with our best friend from high school. This book tells us everything it can. Hard to convey the urgency with which you should pick up this or any other poetry collection by Bob Hicok, except to say he is without doubt the most vital, necessary American poet writing today.

Come to think of it, just buy this book and tune into the pulse of a country as it hums out its last days of empire in city, factory, prairie, home and school.

Shipping & Delivery

Not since Whitman or Ferlinghetti has America been so vindicated by one with such a generous bardic gift. Jan 04, Matthew Murawski rated it really liked it Shelves: I liked this collection. It could have been a little shorter, and I think the middle and end were stronger than the first section. Many of the poems deal with Hicok's experience after the VA Tech shootings and the continuing post-Iraq invasion in the mids. There's a sense of personal and cultural trauma. Sep 15, Patricia Murphy rated it it was amazing Shelves: I happen to like to have a little fun when I read a book of poems.

And in this volume Hicok manages emotional, political and intellectual gravitas, sprinkled with moments when I laughed out loud. Moreover, many lines made me wish I had written them. Some of my favorites: Jan 07, Emmy rated it really liked it Shelves: This was an amazing collection of poetry! Upon starting, I will admit I kinda hated it.

However, after reading through about a quarter of the book, I thought perhaps I would give him another chance. And halfway through, I was fascinated. By the time I finished the book, it felt as though I was running and had just found the edge of a cliff, teetering on the edge, waving my arms, and desperately wi This was an amazing collection of poetry! By the time I finished the book, it felt as though I was running and had just found the edge of a cliff, teetering on the edge, waving my arms, and desperately wishing there was more before me. Just as the Bard said, parting is such sweet sorrow, as was finishing this book.

I would love to get my hands on some more Hicok poetry in the future! Oct 30, C rated it liked it Shelves: I'm a bit torn about this collection. Hicok ruined one of my favorite poems of his, "Hope is a Thing with Feathers that Smacks Into a Window" by extending the ending about 5 lines I read the original version in an issue of Smartish Pace.

And a lot of the politics in the book beats you over the head, even when you agree with most of it. Having said all that, at its best Hicok's work is brilliant, tender, beautiful, and hilarious. There are at least a dozen or so poems that are just perfect--and that's rare in any collection, even ones that are over pages. Aug 15, D'Anne rated it it was ok Shelves: This book is over pages, which is long for a poetry collection.

In total there were 9 poems that I thought were awesome, which is not to say all of the other poems were terrible, but then again, there were definitely poems where I was all, "Why is this poem in this book? Where is this guy's editor? It's an iStockPhoto of students on what looks like a suburban community college campus.

The cover is a nod to the many poems in this collection that are ab This book is over pages, which is long for a poetry collection.

Words for Empty and Words for Full

May 27, Nathan rated it really liked it. Look, we're going with 4 stars because, I politely leave--on a coffee table in a coffee shop somewhere-- any book that I don't like by, say, page 15 or so. And Bob Hicok is one of those poets I'm probably going to read, even when he's pissing me off When he hits it, he connects the bat with the ball like few others who are out there trying their best to play this game I kept this book for my poetry shelf.

That says a lot Feb 24, Brian rated it really liked it. What I like most about Hicok is his honesty and lack of sarcasm. His sense of humor relies more on a natural openness to the potential craziness around us, an openness that understands irony without needing to make it the centerpiece of all observation. Hicok is, in a word, authentic, and encourages us all to be, too: Aug 19, Meredith rated it really liked it Shelves: Dec 27, QS rated it liked it Shelves: Not what I was expecting after reading a few of Hicok's poems floating around the internet, which may well have effected how I felt about the collection.

There were a few poems that I really enjoyed, and a few lines in poems I was otherwise pretty ambivalent towards that I really liked, but for the most part I have to give this collection a straightforward "meh". Not a spectacular collection here, and it was a little too long, but it's not bad.

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