000 01574cam a2200205 a 4500
001 036630
005 20231009192636.0
008 110714s1991 mau 000 0 eng
010 _a90028173
020 _a9780395585696
050 0 0 _aPS3558.U288
_bN48 1991
082 0 0 _a811 HUD
100 1 _aHudgins, Andrew
245 1 4 _aThe never-ending
_b: new poems
_c/ by Andrew Hudgins
260 _aBoston
_b: Houghton Mifflin
_c, 1991.
300 _ax, 67 p.
_c; 22 cm.
520 _aThe subjects of Hudgins's third collection vary widely, including the death of Christ, the demise of a love affair in a cellar, and compost. Hudgins weaves together poems on four themes: nature, religion, his family, and, of course, that old standby, love. The poems lock together and form a sort of jigsaw abstract of life. Hudgins's main strength is his ability to cut to the core of a subject with a deep emotional intensity, then circle around and attack it from another angle, as in ``Praying Drunk,'' and ``Heat Lightining in a Time of Drought.'' The poems are blessed with startling imagery: deer are ``enormous rats on stilts;'' sirens are ``lullabies/ they sound like making love.'' In one ``prayer'' poem, Hudgins speaks in slang to God; he tells God he hears from an old girlfriend, then asks, ``Do you?'' It's surprisingly effective. In one poem he writes with humor, although as he says, ``This is my favorite sin, despair.'' As Hudgins spins his tales, you want to follow him into ``the starting over. And then the never-ending.''
650 4 _aPoetry, American
942 _cMO
999 _c245817
_d245817