Source Codes

...You can't argue with success: Wheeler is a real poet and Knott is not. Her two books are worth more than all his put together. Don't argue with the Poetry Establishment.

In reference to "a reader in ny"'s (what is the proper punctuation there?) "shiny & shallow" I take exception. I'm also a great fan of the poet Bill Knott. He's brilliant. And yes I do see crossover between Knott and Wheeler. But although they're both wildly clever, the territory is simply different which makes any comparison between the two poets invalid. Knott is a sufferer--and God bless sufferers. Wheeler is an observer--(I don't know if God blesses observers, but theological considerations are not necessary to this review). In her own oddly guarded, controlled and quite imaginative way, Wheeler's telling us what she sees. May both poets reign. May ALL poets reign.

This book of poems is really cool. Susan Wheeler is intelligent and real. I can relate to the language and images she uses to propel her poems, poems that show me the world, show me myself. This book I picked up expecting to read one or two poems, but ended up reading it straight through one morning. It's odd that you can actually buy this kind of pleasure.

Susan Wheeler is one of our most interesting and innovative poets. Her latest book is an amazing series of imitations (of Robert Frost's "Provide, Provide"), meditations, character studies (for a novel Wheeler is writing), sonnets, fragments, chain poems, retellings (of a children's record from the `50s), cut-ups, memories, etc. "Source Codes" is illustrated with a number of Wheeler's provocative postcard collages (there was a show of her postcards here in New York a few years ago) and includes several appendixes of fascinating worksheets. I couldn't put this one down. It's as if Wheeler has invented a new way to write a book of poems, and I marveled at it all the way through.