A Review of Aaron Poochigian, American Divine

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book review

Travis Biddick

A Review of Aaron Poochigian, American Divine

University of Evansville Press; First edition (March 20, 2021)
ISBN 978-0930982799, 78 pp., USA $15.00, paperback

 

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How many books must a poet publish—or for how many years must he write—before his readers cease to treat each successive title as a marker of his development, asking, “How has our poet changed?” and “Is the change an improvement?” and “Will he continue to change? If so, how?” Obviously, in his early efforts an artist works toward a mastery of his craft. But eventually, he reaches a point where mastery of the craft entails mastery of something much more difficult: the self. Over the course of a writer’s career one expects experiments in style and form and readily forgives the occasional failure; but the poet who after two or three opportunities fails to master the self—or, to put it more positively, to “come into his own”—should be shown no mercy, his efforts consigned to oblivion (or remembered bitterly as the cause of so much wasted time).
  In American Divine, we see the poems of a writer at such a crossroads. Aaron Poochigian has published many translations, two collections of lyrics, and one long narrative poem. The early lyrics are technically accomplished, but had plenty of deficiencies, too. Manhattanite was frequently marred by its obsession with manners of speech and a conspicuous solipsism (which, I suppose, may appeal to some readers). In Cosmic Purr, his debut collection, Poochigian simply struggled to write with clarity. Mr. Either/Or marked a dramatic departure from the previous collections, as well as this one.
  So now, nearly ten years after the publication of Cosmic Purr, where do things stand?
  Has Poochigian come into his own?
  Of one thing we may now be certain: Poochigian has mastered his craft. His interest in . . .
. . . . . . .
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