The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems (1997) - Plot & Excerpts
I had high expectations coming into this book of poems by Ondaatje. The only other work that I had read from him was The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, which was recommended to me by my independent study teacher my senior year of high school. I thank him so much for introducing me to Ondaatje, because I ate that book up within less than a day, and I knew that if Ondaatje could do that with Billy the Kid then he could do it in all his other works too, including The Cinnamon Peeler.He did just that.Unlike Billy the Kid, The Cinnamon Peeler was simply a book of poetry. The former was more of a book of prose and poetry that created a story (what would that be called? I’m not entirely sure). Nonetheless, Ondaatje was able to surprise me yet again with his command of the English language. There were moments where I just had to stop and go “damn”. Ondaatje uses his words in a way that not only makes you sit back and think for a moment, relating everything he has said to yourself and your life experience, but he also makes you wonder how a person could have came up with a few simple words, put them together, and made them so beautiful. I will share with you guys a stanza from one of the poems that caught my eye and made me revel at Ondaatje’s mastery. It is from his poem, Rainy Night Talk:Here’s to the long legsdriving homein more and more rainweaving like a one-sidedlonely conversationover the mountainsHis words are gorgeous. My favorite poem out of the rest was Claude Glass, and I highly recommend that anyone interested in poetry to try him out. I don’t know many other people who are familiar with him (even my poetry professor did not recognize him), and if anyone else is familiar with him I ask that you speak up and spread the word! Even if you are not that much of a poetry person, check him out. He may change your mind about poetry.
what i really like about these set of poems is that some of them are really personalities and glimpse of the author himself and some of his hobbies and aspirations in life. I am not a very deep thinker on literature such a poems, which i know have deeper meanings, i did appreciate the clarity and humour of some of these stanzas which i find metaphorically intriguing, but nevertheless i just gave it a 3 stars because i was not able to technically digest fully the intent and meaning of these metaphors, which only a honed and seasoned poet and reader can appreciate, but i was inspired to write a poem as a means of expressing myself in the genre, here goes: The Cinnamon Peeler, oh what great metaphor is there really such a thing, as complex as this I could be a banana peeler, which is easier i supposed the delicious fleshy fruit, is all i heed for Now my mind has come to terms, with all things beautiful Such personal qualms and happiness, that the author introduced I was not ready at first, with all deviance to like But i put my best foot forward, to savour every moment All triumphs of the mind and spirit, that Michael has to offer.
What do You think about The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems (1997)?
I bought this book on a whim (it was $2 at a book fair), and I'm so happy that I did. I haven't read any of Ondaatje's novels, but now I want to. He write poetry like a (very good) fiction writer—almost every poem is narrative, rooted in poignant images, relatable characters, bits of dialogue that I think must have come from Ondaatje's life. There's a familiar quality to his poetry, which I think is what got me hooked on it. I feel like I've experienced the same funny, painful moments and that I've come to the same conclusions about love and loneliness and the night sky.
—Alice Urchin
A nice collection, most stunning is the unexpected "Elimination Dance (an intermision)" including a motley list such as:"Those who are allergic to the seaMen who shave off beards in stages, pausing to take photographsGentlemen who have placed a microphone beside a naked woman’s stomach after lunch and later, after slowing down the sound considerably, have sold these noises on the open market as whale songsThose who have accidently stapled themselvesThose who have woken to find the wet footprints of a peacock across their kitchen floorAnyone whose knees have been ruined as a result of performing sexual acts in elevatorsThose who have used the following techniques of seduction:-small talk at a falconry convention-underlining suggestive phrases in the prefaces of Joseph Conrad"Funny stuff.Also of note are the following excerpts:“He loves too, as she knows, the body of rivers. Provide him with a river or a creek and he will walk along it. Will step off and sink to his waist, the sound of water and rock encasing him in solitude.” —from “Escarpment” and this quote:“So this midnight choir.” (forget which poem/page)
—Terresa
These are wonderful poems, deft, fresh and surprising. "The car carried him/racing the obvious moon/beating in the trees like a white bird.""Imagine the rain/falling like white bees on the sidewalk.""There is this light,/colorless, that falls on the warm/stretching brain of the bulb/that is dreaming avocado." "We are in a cell of civilized magic./Stravinsky roars at breakfast,/our milk is powdered./Outside a May god/moves his paws to alter wind/to scatter shadows of tree and cloud." "Tell me/all you know/about bamboo.""Those things we don't know we love/we love harder"
—Susan
