Fracture

Clayton Eshleman

I never thought I would say it: I found a Clayton Eshleman book that really didn't do much for me.

As usual, when Eshleman is on his game, he is very very on his game. Every once in a while, the book kicks out one of those poems that just makes you sit back and say “whoa.” (Interestingly, these are far more common in the book's later poems.) The majority, however, do not do this; Eshleman seems to have temporarily forgotten that “show, don't tell” is not only a phrase, but a way of life.

Having read and enjoyed material from both before and after this book, I have to wonder whether this is simply an anomaly. For the Eshleman completist only.