Comments on: The Dirt Riddles http://www.constantcritic.com/christina_mengert/the-dirt-riddles/ Timely poetry reviews Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:37:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: JB Becker http://www.constantcritic.com/christina_mengert/the-dirt-riddles/comment-page-1/#comment-21188 JB Becker Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:16:22 +0000 http://www.constantcritic.com/?p=921#comment-21188 As an infrequent reader of new poetry, I was struck by Walsh's words abilty to transport me from my urban adulthood to his rural adolescents. Likewise the flavors and smells evoked in his words are pungently present tense; I would not be terribly surprised to hear the ring of a cell phone at his rural gas station, nor "new hit country" playing from a radio in the next room of the farmhouse during a thunderstorm. I think the reviewer values both Walsh's authenticity and his undeniable writing prowess. As an infrequent reader of new poetry, I was struck by Walsh’s words abilty to transport me from my urban adulthood to his rural adolescents. Likewise the flavors and smells evoked in his words are pungently present tense; I would not be terribly surprised to hear the ring of a cell phone at his rural gas station, nor “new hit country” playing from a radio in the next room of the farmhouse during a thunderstorm.

I think the reviewer values both Walsh’s authenticity and his undeniable writing prowess.

]]> By: Alex Lemon http://www.constantcritic.com/christina_mengert/the-dirt-riddles/comment-page-1/#comment-20771 Alex Lemon Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:19:10 +0000 http://www.constantcritic.com/?p=921#comment-20771 Great review, great book. Great review, great book.

]]> By: adam strauss http://www.constantcritic.com/christina_mengert/the-dirt-riddles/comment-page-1/#comment-20716 adam strauss Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:59:15 +0000 http://www.constantcritic.com/?p=921#comment-20716 Yesyesyes!--: Queerness, in these poems, radically disrupts the cultural vision that one might expect from poetry concerned with the agricultural Midwest. In this way, the vantage point of Walsh’s speakers seem as much outside as inside, intimate as foreign (would that this were not the case; it seems a shame we identify rural America with staunch heterocentrism). By writing the queer into his poems, Walsh foregrounds the popular idea of the rural United States as excluding the queer (and, by extension, emphasizing cultural homogeneity). I'm so happy to read the above--thank you CM! Yesyesyes!–: Queerness, in these poems, radically disrupts the cultural vision that one might expect from poetry concerned with the agricultural Midwest. In this way, the vantage point of Walsh’s speakers seem as much outside as inside, intimate as foreign (would that this were not the case; it seems a shame we identify rural America with staunch heterocentrism). By writing the queer into his poems, Walsh foregrounds the popular idea of the rural United States as excluding the queer (and, by extension, emphasizing cultural homogeneity).

I’m so happy to read the above–thank you CM!

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