When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone

In this, Kinnell's 10th book of poetry, one could either bemoan the book's unevenness or be dazzled by its range; I'd recommend the latter. By turns humorous, erotic, and melancholy, Kinnell here explores many of the themes that have consumed him over his 40+ years of writing -- but in a style that is less taut, less compressed. Long compared to Whitman for the rolling electricity of his language, Kinnell also shares many of his forefather's concerns: "How could anyone/willingly leave a world where they touch you/all over your body?" Kinnell writes, and he seems genuinely perplexed. At times there's a prosier voice here than those familiar with his Selected Poems or his Book of Nightmares would expect; when in "The Cat" he surreally details the exploits of a feline saboteur ("when the cat is around something goes wrong"), for example, or, in "Oatmeal," muses on the benefits of eating porridge with imaginary partners, one is reminded of the narrative-propelled poems of Stephen Dobyns, the wry humor of Billy Collins....But Kinnell's project has always been a bit more ambitious than those of the aforementioned, and there are poems in here that will simply stun you. The title poem itself is among Kinnell's best writing ever, and to read the 11-part poem aloud, and straight through, well it'll have your head ringing like a prayer bowl.