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    Honest Engine: Poems
    Honest Engine: Poems
    Honest Engine: Poems
    Ebook92 pages44 minutes

    Honest Engine: Poems

    By Kyle Dargan

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    In this his fourth collection, award-winning poet Kyle Dargan examines the mechanics of the heart and mind as they are weathered by loss. Following a spate of deaths among family and friends, Dargan chooses to present not color-negative elegies but self-portraits that capture what of these departed figures remains within him. Amid this processing of mortality, it becomes clear that he has arrived at a turning point as a writer and a man.

    As the title suggests, Dargan aspires toward an unflinching honesty. These poems do not purport to possess life’s answers or seek to employ language to mask what they do not know. Dargan confesses as a means of reaching out to the nomadic human soul and inviting it to accompany him on a walk toward the unknown.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of Georgia Press
    Release dateApr 1, 2015
    ISBN9780820348315
    Honest Engine: Poems
    Author

    Kyle Dargan

    KYLE DARGAN's poetry collections include Logorrhea Dementia: A Self-Diagnosis (Georgia); Bouquet of Hungers (Georgia), which received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; and The Listening (Georgia), which was a winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. He is the former managing editor of Callaloo and the founder and current editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. He is an associate professor of literature and creative writing at American University.

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    • 5/5
      Poetry is an interesting art form. Some readers shy away from it while others approach carefully, unsure what to expect. At its best poetry has the ability to express something of the poet's heart while also allowing the reader to invest some of his heart as well. Kyle Dargan's Honest Engine is an example of poetry at its best. It is intimately personal yet also international in scope. There are not many volumes, regardless of genre or length, that can make that claim. I tended toward the more personal which also suits my interest in culture and how we all operate within (without?) it. Not to mention I always enjoy hearing Love TKO running through my brain.Because of my background I was a little unsure with the title because of the similarity it has to an old phrase ("honest injun") but quickly got past that as I came to appreciate Dargan's project.Two things I want to leave with you. First, one poem entitled "State of the Union" was both timely and put a smile on my face with the image it gives. And second, my favorite line (to fully appreciate get the book and read the poem, "Suprematist Sweet Nothings"): "Make of me not song but singing."I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading contemporary poetry that is both beautiful and thought-provoking.Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads.

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    Honest Engine - Kyle Dargan

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