After

After by Jane Hirshfield
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm never sure about assigning star rating to poetry, I don't quite have the confidence for it- who's to say what's good or successful when the goal is such a moving target so much of the time? I liked these poems. I loved a few. I was ambivalent about some.

I've long-admired Jane Hirshfield's poems, but I think this is the first time I've sat down with a collection. After is accented with poems that examine the tiny forgotten words in out language, and more often than not, these poems meditate on the mundane and quotidian to illuminate some larger understanding or feeling. Some of them feel truly lyric in their ability to turn the reader inside out, and others feel a little hollower.

I loved, especially, "Those Who Cannot Act," "Of: An Assay," "A Man Walks Through His Life," and "It Was Like This: You Were Happy."

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