Set On Fire, Or Burn?
FIONNA DONEY SIMMONDS Reviews THE GOOD CAMPAIGN
I just happened upon a review of my chapbook, THE GOOD CAMPAIGN (Dusie 2006). Fionna Doney Simmonds stumbles around with the poetry a bit, but finally flatters aptly. I enjoyed the frustrations (sorry!) that lead to her picturesque conclusion (& wouldn’t mind a sip of that wine if I got to eavesdrop):
“… It is not a light poem — it is heavy, but not stodgy — a bit like Christmas pudding on Boxing Day around 9 pm after the leftover roast has been made into sandwiches. Her imagery, however, despite being overwhelming, is fantastic.
A feminine body needs to slice, not bubble,
the air that masks us clearer.
The same could be said of King’s poetry. This is the kind of poem that I would really enjoy bringing into a group discussion. A bunch of poetry enthusiasts, sitting around an open fire, drinking heavy red wine, heatedly debating the images that flood this chapbook. It is not a book for the fainthearted, definitely not for the novice. To appreciate this book you must be a serious poetry lover. It is also, having said that, a book for the poetry writer. Amy King has an amazing manipulative way with words that is an inspiration to anyone interested in the written word.”
–Review excerpt by Fionna Doney Simmonds from GALATEA RESURRECTS #4
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One Response to “Set On Fire, Or Burn?”
AMY KING View All →
Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) Award. Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She co-edited with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She also co-edits the anthology series, Bettering American Poetry, and is a professor of creative writing at SUNY Nassau Community College.
AMY KING 
December 14th, 2006 at 5:00 am eFionna’s reaction seems to further my concept,
that modern art has a useful purpose: that of evocation,
in such a way as to resonate or otherwise provoke and
bring out the thoughts of the receptor. Broken thought
strings are like the pluck of a guitar string by a pick.
The mind must complete the discontinuity, and the
inner fabrication awakens…good exercise.
I hope more evocative things flourish…too little
is left to the imagination these days. The mice grow dull.
Heavy wine and arguments over interpretations…
..sounds like a good evening, Fionna!
Methinks the Oracles had wider purposes.