Walking Backward

by Paul Lake

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1885266723
• ISBN13: 9781885266729
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Story Line Press
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

good narrative poetry found here

First of all, don't let the cover art fool you. This is not some sort of surrealist or postmodern collection. Paul Lake is a poet very much grounded in narrative and form. The book is divided into three sections. The first section is the weakest of the book. Lake has several good narrative poems throughout the collection ('Thorn' 'Inspectors'). Included in the first section is the narrative "Walking Backward" which is a great story told by a draft dodger or his draft dodging and of life's treatment of people. Section 2 only contains the long narrative poem "Seeing the Elephant" which is a great poem about a survivor of the Donner party. Section three, the strongest in the collection ends with one of the best poems, "Two Hitchhikers" which is not only a great ancedote, but has a hilarious ending. The collection has some very well done dramatic monologues, but where it weakens is in the lyric poems. "Pieces" and "Revised Standard Version" are pretty much the only lyric poems worthwhile. The rest bring down the collection as a whole. I wish that Lake had just included the narratives, a few of the dramatic monologues and those two lyrics. Perhaps to round the collection out more he could have included another narrative poem, which seems to be his strong suit.

Intense lyrics, harrowing narratives.

The intense lyrics and harrowing narratives of Walking Backward explore the web of values and obligations that bind people into neighborhoods and nations. Paul Lake's poetry reflects a blending of artful language with imaginative expression to present a lucid, articulate imagery that is as impressive as it is memorable. Pieces: The queen moves with unbounded liberty./Slant-eyed, a bishop offers up a prayer./A horse-faced gallant full of chivalry/Enters the family trade, an officer./A rook, high as a silo, lets fire fall,/Then ends its run behind a remnant pawn./The king strolls past his garden's rose-grown wall/To issue statements from the castle lawn./Only the pawns, bald-domed as army ants,/Urged to the common good by stripes and prayers,/regard the board, cursed with their consciousness/Of all the horror of those empty squares.