I've had her poems stuck in my head for years, after hearing a reading on the radio when I was younger. I don't know what the chord it is that it struck with me but I'm happy to own it and have read the whole thing. The ones I didn't know didn't mean as much to me as the ones I knew already but its one for the shelf that I suspect will come down and down again for years to come .

An amazing collection of poems centered around a young women's work and life in the city. A few poems in particular will resonate when you are having "one of those days".

A very quick read that didn't leave a lasting impression. Some poems I liked and other poems weren't great. This was a hit or a miss for me.

Tell me you haven't had a day like this.....go ahead


Excerpt:

FIGHT SONG

Sometimes you have to say it:
Fuck them all.

Yes fuck them all--
the artsy posers,
the office blowhards
and brown nosers;

Fuck the type who gets the job done
and the type who stands on principle;
the down-to-earth and understated;
the overhyped and underrated;

Project director?
Get a bullshit detector.

Client's mum?
Up your bum.

You can't be nice to everyone.

When your back is to the wall
When they don't return your call
When your sick of saving face
When your screwed in any case

Fuck the culture scanners, contest winners,
subtle thinkers and the hacks who offend them;
people who give catered dinners
and (saddest of sinners) the sheep who attend them--

which is to say fuck yourself
and the person you were; polite and mature,
a trooper for good. The beauty is
they'll soon forget you

and if they don't
they probably should.

These poems aren't completely terrible but they aren't particularly good, either. They read kind of like Sex in the City, minus the sex, the humor, or anything else interesting, distilled into the poetry of, say, Billy Collins.

This is a short collection of poems by Deborah Garrison, it was originally published in 1998. Garrison sounds like a very interesting woman, worked at The New Yorker as part of their editorial staff, and now poetry editor at Knopf and senior editor at Pantheon Books.

These poems are inspired by her own experiences, it is clear after reading a bit if her bio. They touch subjects as grief, professional life as a female from an interesting sort of dual perspective, which is her same approach to married life and juggling her various responsibilities as a female/wife/professional/mom.

Unapologetic, fleeting feelings put down on paper, everyday flat thoughts vs well thought out pieces. It was a funny, frustrating, emphatic Sunday read.

I picked this slim book of poems up from the Wayne State English Department's "free books" bin last year.

Witty, removed poems, maybe a little too formulaic sometimes but worth spending time with.