Terrance Hayes is an original American voice. I feel much happier about the state of American poetry knowing he's writing, thinking, and living with his family and students in Pittsburgh. His references range wide and deep (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Gwendolyn Brooks, Wallace Stevens, David Bowie, Blue Note Jazz)."...But the cue sticks mean we/ are rubbed by light, smooth as wood, the lurk/ of smoke thinned to song...""In the far south where sap jewels the bark, the teeth/ of the saws are sticky and bittersweet..." I hate not giving new books of poetry four or five stars, but I'm trying to not be such a book slut. There were moments of pure genius here and I especially loved "The Golden Shovel", "The Shepherd", "Hide" and "Arbor for Butch". These selections, of course, reveal my bias for, and these poems' lean toward, form. I think it's arguable that the restrictions superficially imposed on these poems (none are formal, per se) made them tighter and more vivid. And so I'm not totally in love with the rest of the book, but mainly because they're just not my thing stylistically. Nevertheless, Hayes is recognizably masterful.
What do You think about Lighthead (2010)?
i feel like hayes is worth checking out. i dug a lot of poems in this book a lot.
—zxride64
A constant shift between tour-de-force and frustration.
—chris
