Pig Notes & Dumb Music: Prose on Poetry

Pig Notes is a collection of short prose pieces with subjects that range from poetry to diamond cutting. Heyen uses the form to work out some of his favorite concerns-- poetic necessity, unity, the modern poem, environmental issues, and life in Brockport, NY. My favorite essay was "Poverty". I liked the notion of words being used to order intuition. It seemed particularly appropriate to the book as a whole. I was less interested in the environmental writings-- while powerful, they seemed at odds with the unity of the rest of the book. Recommended for readers familiar with the poetry of Heyen or interested in this style of writing. Think Robert Bly and Wendell Berry if you are trying to get a sense of where to place his work. Disclaimer: Bill was a teacher of mine a long time ago, so I am not a completely unbiased reader. It was lovely to hear his diction again in these little pieces.