This was a really interesting read. I’ve heard the name Emily Dickinson again and again over time. But I’ve never actually had the chance to sit down and enjoy her work. Now I understand why there’s such a rant and rave about her work. Especially since her poetry is so multilayered that no matter how many times I read this, I’m going to find something new to obsess over and be fascinated by.
I can spend hours staring at one poem, pulling apart each nuance and meaning. It’s something I’m far more likely to do than when there is prose around. This poem made me so uncomfortable that I didn’t do that this time. After all, it’s in the Alien Sex collection, so it’s not going to be a comfortable story.
This is a quick, sharp pithy little poem. Each line had few words and made the poem flow with a quick beat. Which was perfect for a poem which featured the trickster Anansi. After all, tricksters are always portrayed as quick, nimble and intense characters. They don’t stay still for long, and they’re constantly on the move. Kind of like this poem.
I love when you read a poem and it makes you want to dive right into the subject matter and find out more. The fact that this poem featured a trickster from folklore just tickled my fancy all the more. It was actually incredibly sad that it was only two pages long.
This is a nice, quick and fun poem. It’s an easy read, but one that has many hidden layers. I read it twice before I started trying to write this review. After all, the hidden layers were happy to tell me something new each and every re-read.
This isn’t one of my favourite poems. It isn’t one of those that sticks with me. But it was a fun and interesting journey. A great way to finish a fantastic collection. Easy, and engaging without making me think too hard.
One of my favourite things about poems is the multitude of meanings that a very few words can describe. The multitude of ways in which mere words can tell an entire story. It’s something that prose just can’t quite manage. Prose can fill in more information, but I find that poetry can often find more meaning.
I absolutely loved this poem. Although Maleficent (or the evil fairy from Sleeping Beauty) has always seemed kind of a terrifying villain, she’s also been the one that I relate to the best. Well, maybe not relate to, but understand. After all, she is retaliating against an incredible slight. Plus, there are so many beautiful retellings in the world now which make her seem far less evil, and just… misunderstood.
I’m getting more and more into poetry as time passes. There is just something about the lyricism of the words and the symbolism they often impart. It just works beautifully. And the use of a female coyote in this story was just fantastic. I love that Dunn finds a way to impart the femininity of tricksters and can share this in so few pages.
I don’t think I’ve read the original tale of Puss in Boots. Although I have read a few retellings over time, and I thought that doing new take on an old classic using a poem was a quaint and attractive way in which to do so. This was quick, sharp, shiny and straight to the point. It was also well written, fun and great at highlighting the triumph of beast over man.
