a bunch more Robert W Service books

Apparently after finishing The Best of Robert Service I then decided to just read ALL the other Service on my shelf in just a couple days. Okay then.

Songs of a Sourdough, by Robert W Service
A little too much leaning on just a couple themes, which gets repetitive in places, but also contains a couple of my favourite poems.

Ballads of a Cheechako, by Robert W Service
As a collection, reasonably formed, though of course I still don't like all the poems in it. My first introduction to a rather long narrative poem about a guy who thinks he's found the source of the northern lights, and it's delightful.

Rhymes of a Rolling Stone, by Robert W Service
A somewhat lower proportion of poems I actually like in this one. Oh well.

Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, by Robert W Service
These are poems written about WWI, in which Service was a stretcher-bearer and ambulance-driver. And....the vast majority of the poems are uncomfortably pro-war, to me. Sigh.

Ballads of a Bohemian, by Robert W Service
This is a book Service wrote after he became Very Rich from his earlier books and moved to Paris, and the whole book is from the pov of a....a version of him who's a very poor Parisian bohemian writing poetry and attempting to sell it to get by. He includes little first-person narrative interludes between the poems, from this persona, about his bohemian-writer life. The persona kinda rubs me the wrong way, and a lot of the poetry's not to my taste either.

Bar-Room Ballads, by Robert W Service
Nothing much to say about this one. I think reading this many books of Service's poetry in quick succession was getting to me.

EDIT: Oh I suppose I could link to the single poem I actually refer to specifically, it is out of copyright and all. Here you go: Ballad of the Northern Lights.

poetry recs

I was thinking again about poetry I like, after revisiting Robert Service rather to excess, and thought I'd maybe do a reclist of 10 poems I like that you can read online.

Let's see how I am at talking about what I like about poetry. I don't have a lot of experience at that. Here we go!

1. Conscientious Objector, by Edna St Vincent Millay

This one gives me feelings and also I love the way it frames the whole thing. "Am I a spy in the land of the living that I should deliver men to Death?" God I love it.

2. My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears, by Mohja Kahf

The solidity of the imagery is amazing, how thoroughly it brings you into the specific moment the poem is talking about, but also the specific story is a window into a much larger experience.

3. This Vote Is Legally Binding, by Ursula Vernon

So like. It's funny? It's taking an obviously absurd premise to its conclusion in a really fun way. But also: yes.

4. Million-Year Elegies: Oviraptor, by Ada Hoffman

Aww yeah dinosaur poetry! Okay but like actually this is so lovely, bringing an intimate perspective on a long-dead creature that scientists at first misunderstood.

(For those who are not dinosaur obsessed: this poem makes more sense if you are aware that when Oviraptor was first discovered near a nest of eggs it was assumed it was an egg-eating dinosaur there to steal the eggs, but it's since been determined that the eggs were almost certainly the Oviraptor's own, which it was caring for.)

5. Legacies, by Nikki Giovanni

IDEK it just like. Perfectly encapsulates in this tiny wee bit of writing something that feels really real and true. The challenges of communication!

6. Wandering Around an Albuquerque Airport Terminal, by Naomi Shihab Nye

This one brings to life the wonder and realness and goodness of shared connections with other people, and it's, like, hopeful, but a sort of defiant hopefulness in the face of modern realities of racism.

7. Is This the Face? by Jo Walton

Accurate at capturing a mindset that can overwhelm you when you are in the throes of puberty, in the context of Helen of Troy being 13.

8. Catch A Body, by Isle Bendorf

The way it all flows trippingly forward, carrying you through a rushing series of thoughts and feelings and images, is just really effective to me at conveying the things it's trying to convey.

9. Translatio, by Sharon Hsu

One of those poems that just tells a story about a person's life experience really well.

10. From Blossoms, by Li-Young Lee

Really evocative, taking this really specific imagery and building out and off of it in a way that takes you there.