A phrase kept recurring as I read Homelight: Poems, the new collection by poet Lola Haskins. The phrase is “looking slant.”
It has many meanings, like taking or presenting a particular view or approach, or representing a particular political or philosophical position, or understanding something from a particular vantage point.
Applied to these 48 poems (or 60, if you add the grouped poems), “looking slant” is not so much articulating a specific worldview or philosophy but instead casting a very different eye in very different ways. And it sneaks up on you. You think you’re experiencing a poem just like you experienced the one you just read, and then Haskins subtly shifts gears. She has a focused eye for what she writes about, but it’s a focus that changes with each subject and each poem.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
“Plato’s Pumpkins” and “All Hallows’ Rune” – poems by Leland James at Society of Classical Poets.
Days of the Dead – poem by Michael Dickel at The Wombwell Rainbow (Paul Brookes).
A Guide to Reading Ghost Stories with Russell Kirk – Robert Woods at The Imaginative Conservative.
Can You Halloween Haiku? – Tweetspeak Poetry.
Review: Watership Down, the Graphic Novel – Carolyn Leiloglou at Story Warren.
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