Richard Jackson (1) (1946–)

Out of Place gathers together poems from a talented poet whose command of language, imagery, symbolism, and allusion exemplifies the best in creating poetry. With every phrase, every sentence, and every stanza, Richard Jackson enriches the vision of the readers. Beautiful lines are commonplace in these poems and each evokes clear images; refusing to allow readers to gloss the poems or to forget them after reading them.
However, at times, I felt as if the poet were so much involved in the imagery and literary references that he forgot to create a sense of closure in many of the poems. The poetry is beautiful, it flows and impresses, but sometimes the point or meaning of the poems is obscure and difficult to parse. No one would object to reading Jackson over and over again, but I believe they would struggle to explain the actual point that some of the poetry hoped to achieve.
In many ways it was a lot like a lot of contemporary art, the viewer realizes that there may be a meaning in there somewhere but he is not sure what it is.… (mais)