Jersey Rain: Poems

When I received "Jersey Rain" as a gift last year, I initially read it through once and put it down for a few months, deciding that Pinsky (more so even than Seamus Heaney or Derek Walcott) was a poet more concerned about pretentious mythological name-dropping than about true depth. I have since decided that my judgment was too harsh, and I've gone back and re-read some of the poems many times. I think "Samurai Song" stands as the strongest poem in here (not coincidentally, it makes no references to Greek mythology...) and is the one that I read most often. The other poems I especially enjoy are "The Knight's Prayer," "Victrola," "Steel Drum Variations," "Biography," "Song," "Ode to Meaning," "The Haunted Ruin" and "Vessel." Pinsky is able to achieve profundity in the most surprising ways, and is even able to poke fun at himself and his craft (witness "Ode to Meaning").Contrary to some other reviewers, I find that "ABC," while it's a clever and fun experiment, fails in the last line ("X = your zenith" What the hell does that mean?). Nevertheless, for those looking for some breathtaking poetry with a good balance between pretension (which, as I've come to realize, is not always a bad thing), lyricism and depth, "Jersey Rain" is a decent bet.

In what turns out to be quite an interesting collection of Poems, Robert Pinsky uses his stripped down style to convey his messages clearly, but with a sense of symbolism. In each writing, the point is introduced pretty early in the reading, and then expounded upon in ways that few poets I have encountered are able to. In addition, the length of each one is nearly perfect, keeping the reader's attention while still expressing exactly what Pinsky wants to say. I certainly recommend this book to anyone who has read poetry before and is interested in a slight change of pace.

First got cued to this book by Shawn Penn who took an extensive amount of time on Charlie Rose to explain the significance of "Sweet Time Unafflicted" from Pinsky's ABC in his own life. It is a simple, accesible beauty that Pinksy strives for and delivers, many of his poems focusing on contemporary themes and keeping their lexicon to the modern. As in ABC Pinsky builds several stanzas throughout the book on 26 word strings in alphabetical order. If as a reader you are interested in expanding your present interests into contemporary poetry the work of this Poet Laureate may be a sublimely fufilling place to begin.

The strongest pieces in this book [Samurai Song, Ode to Meaning, Abc & An Alphabet of My Dead, To Television, The Green Piano, Jersey Rain] are mostly formal poems which work magically because their author is able to overcome the limits of form. Which is to say that in these poems Pinsky is not just a craftsman of verse but a poet whose humanity speaks to us between the lines. He is no longer a slave to his rhymes - he makes the rhymes work for him and does so magnificently. It would not be an overstatement to claim that the pieces like "Green Piano," "Samurai Song," and "Jersey Rain" are among the best works of poetry published in a decade. Buy the book and figure it out for yourself. Green Piano shines with the joy of a good writing. Yes, you must definitely buy this book.

A thin volume, full of jewles--dark-colored jewles, like rubies and emeralds, lit by candlelight inside a church. The secret to reading a Pinsky poem is to read it very slowly, out loud, annunciating each syllable as though it were its own line: you will realize that the slimness of this book is misleading. Pinsky seems to construct each of his poems out of perfect sound, so carefully that each line--free verse or otherwise--resonates with meaning and memorability, as anyone who has read THE FIGURED WHEEL will probably already know. A worthy addition to Pinsky's already rich body of work. I'm grateful to have read it.