Reviews and Comments on Selected Poems 1967 -2007.
“I like ‘Evening Near The Park’ and the Samuel Morse poem very much.”
–Richard Wilbur, Pulitzer Prize winner
In response to a poem written about a painting by the artist:
“You have done in words what I attempted in paint. Thank you for it.”
–James Wyeth, painter
“I must tell you that I am extremely attracted to your poem ‘Dream Ache.’ It’s perfect! I love the images. Your ‘Mona Lisa’ was excellent!”
–T.E. Breitenbach, painter and author of Proverbidioms.
“Loved the Bear! It’s superb. You have captured an experience many of us can relate to—and few others will believe.”
–Roy MacGregor, columnist for The Globe and Mail
“I enjoyed the wit in these poems, and found myself smiling at ‘Lines In Preparation For A Lunch Date,’ and moved by ‘Epitaph Of An American Soldier Killed In A Foreign Adventure,’ which has the pithy directness of some of Langston Hughes.”
–Annie Finch, author of Calendars
“Hudson Owen is a wonderful writer, he is not fixated on style nor subject, his pen roams freely.”
–Simon Barrett, Blogger News Network
“It’s hard to identify just one strength of Owen’s. He has several. He is as comfortable writing in meter as he is in free verse, but which he does better might be a matter of opinion. Personally, I think some of his finest lines are in meter.
I’m not always friendly to lighter verse, but with Owen I think I can make an exception. It’s those poems where he is light and airy, and even droll.
Owen, however, is at his best when he is showing his romantic spirit. A few of his lines showcase a dry wit and those are welcome, as well.
Owen has poems that could outlive his own name.”
– Allen Taylor, World Class Poetry.com
Reviews and Comments on The Endless Evolving Trilogy – A Poem Cycle
Every so often I read a poetry collection that totally throws me for a loop. In the case of Hudson Owen’s The Endless Evolving Trilogy, I would make that two loops.
Owen’s mind works in ways that few poets’ minds work. His perspective in the first section of the Trilogy — The Living Legend of Peezis Rilly Here — is truly unique, and takes strong, overt political stands. While much of the work in this first section hovers on the verge of doggerel, it by no means lessens the powerful messages behind poems like “The Carnival of Appetites”:
“Step right up and change your color.
Change your I.Q., bright or duller.
Inflate your rate, improve your tone.
Compose your nose, exchange your kinks.
It’s easier than you suppose,” L. Vie winks.
“Squirt silicone. All at the chemical exhibition.
The price is just your inhibition.”
Even more impressive to me were the poems in the latter two sections of Owen’s Trilogy, which deal head-on with the ironies and bitter fallout of the Vietnam War. In these sections, Owen steps away from the contrived rhymes that work fine in the first section, but would be a bit too flippant for the statements he wants to make here. These lines from “Vietnam” are just wonderful examples of how lyrical Owen can be:
There will always be a jungle
where an old man sits on a mat
and buries the day in opium sleep,
and a young mother searches
among the dead for her own.
There will always be a wind
that blows through the village,
sweeping the clouds from the moon
and the incense from the temple,
the rude rekindling of war.
Even if you’re thrown off by the poems of the first section of The Endless Evolving Trilogy, Owen will win you over with his brazen style and humor, as well as his lyrical sensibilities and willingness to wear his heart on these pages.
–Bernadette Geyer,Bernie E-Zine
“It (book) passes the smell test.”
–James Matthew Wilson
“I found the poems in the trilogy have a bouncy rhythm. Mr. Owen alternates rhyme schemes from free verse to couplets. His free verse often intermingles with rhyme. This enhances variety in form. In the trilogy, the reader meets fascinating fictitious characters: Peezis, Dr. Cerpeption, and a woman he calls Dear…What I like about his poetry is the skill he uses in playing with rhythm and rhyme…I also like his method of writing serious and humorous verse. He handles controversial subjects in a clever manner. I really enjoyed all the poems. This book is well worth the $9.95 investment and belongs to my category of will read again.
–Dean Henning, poeticvoices.com.
