REVIEWS
Selected reviews for the poetry of Phyllis Beck Katz
Statement about the poem "Emily Dickinson's Gorgeous Nothings" by Ruth Thompson, judge of the Oberon 2014 Poetry Contest.
"Emily Dickinson's Gorgeous Nothings," the winning poem, perfectly turns the odd bits of notepaper and envelopes on which Dickinson wrote her poems into a brilliant, sustained metaphor for the "gorgeous nothings" she saw at dusk, and for the "gorgeous nothings" of her poems. The flaps of envelopes unfold, become wings; the tiny scraps of Dickinson's writing are infinitely variable, infinitely free." A lovely, vivid, fully imagined poem. Dickinson would, in her wild heart, be proud. Truly "winged.". . . . Sound, rhythm breath are the sensory, physical grounds of a poem. Everything else is built on this. It can be the slow drum beat of a dirge, or sweeping orchestration, or jazzy rhythm, or the subtle play of assonance and edgy consonants in "Emily Dickinson's Gorgeous Nothings."
Reviews for Migrations
"[Migrations] is not only wonderful poem by poem but is what the French call a well made book: it has a trajectory and a coherence that are enviable. The over-riding metaphor of the garden and gardening is deftly and subtly handled, and I find my self, as I go through the poems seriatim, moved, amused, comforted, saddened and enlightened, sometimes within the compass of a single entry. Brava. Brava indeed."
—Sydney Lea, Poet Laureate of Vermont
“Phyllis Beck Katz explores the sorrows and satisfactions of a deeply lived life among family, friends, and the delights and dangers of the natural world. Like the garden that pervades so much of her poetry, Katz’s lyrics exhibit beauty, variety, and the poet’s always nimble care—they are the quickenings of a hard-won and vividly practiced cultivation.”
—Daniel Tobin, author of Belated Heavens
“Migrations is a quiet, closely observed and deeply felt collection of poems that celebrate and mourn the beauties of the mutable world. Formally varied and luminously clear, these poems console and disquiet in equal measure. They possess what another age would call knowledge of the human heart.”
—Alan Shapiro, author of Tantalus in Love
"Of all the many good poems in Migrations, the one I like the best is Nestlings, where the varieties of declamatory stress and rhythm against the underlying meter create dramatic (and, in context here, ominous) compression. It's a bit like Gerard Manley Hopkins, but in a minor key. Nature red in tooth and claw threatens even the human toddler, whose parents had better catch and hold him fast. I also like Union Village Dam, which reminds me of Frost's Directive; Chickadees, which belongs with Frost's sonnet, Never Would Birds' Song Be the Same; the Dylan Thomas-ish Weather Report; the Yeatsian Mirror Image and Changes (cf his Wild Swans at Coole); and Tenacity (Frost again, in spades). Your stuff is in the traditional mainstream, to which you add your own individual, reflective and refined voice."
—Edward Selig
Reviews for All Roads Go Where They Will
"Phyllis Katz's poems are spare, unforced, and ring with clarity. Though they are perfected, they always move beyond their own perfection to something else, something miraculously tender for which only they are the words."
—Vijay Seshadri, author of The Long Meadow
"Phyllis Katz's poetry is rich with the color and music of hope. Every image, every word captures the spirit and the courage of human survival. The struggle to embrace a world she cherishes radiates from her lyrics with an elegance that is accessible and a joy to read."
—"Do" Roberts, Editor of Bloodroot Literary Magazine
About the poem Winter Midnight in the Village
"Thank you for sharing your awe with all of us, bringing us your experience in such a way that it is now the reader's too. Your word choice, the flow of skiing, the quiet in all that snow is musical, poetic, and spiritual to me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your work."
—Mary Jo Ballistreri
About the poem Tempests
I greatly enjoyed your fine poem in the Weekly Avocet. On a check of the painting it is sound in both substance and mood, and I love the rolling cadence, especially in the first few stanzas. As a bonus I learned a new word: ecphrastic. One can always expect good things from dartmouth.edu.
—Jim Hudson,Dartmouth ’48
Statement about the poem "Emily Dickinson's Gorgeous Nothings" by Ruth Thompson, judge of the Oberon 2014 Poetry Contest.
"Emily Dickinson's Gorgeous Nothings," the winning poem, perfectly turns the odd bits of notepaper and envelopes on which Dickinson wrote her poems into a brilliant, sustained metaphor for the "gorgeous nothings" she saw at dusk, and for the "gorgeous nothings" of her poems. The flaps of envelopes unfold, become wings; the tiny scraps of Dickinson's writing are infinitely variable, infinitely free." A lovely, vivid, fully imagined poem. Dickinson would, in her wild heart, be proud. Truly "winged.". . . . Sound, rhythm breath are the sensory, physical grounds of a poem. Everything else is built on this. It can be the slow drum beat of a dirge, or sweeping orchestration, or jazzy rhythm, or the subtle play of assonance and edgy consonants in "Emily Dickinson's Gorgeous Nothings."
Reviews for Migrations
"[Migrations] is not only wonderful poem by poem but is what the French call a well made book: it has a trajectory and a coherence that are enviable. The over-riding metaphor of the garden and gardening is deftly and subtly handled, and I find my self, as I go through the poems seriatim, moved, amused, comforted, saddened and enlightened, sometimes within the compass of a single entry. Brava. Brava indeed."
—Sydney Lea, Poet Laureate of Vermont
“Phyllis Beck Katz explores the sorrows and satisfactions of a deeply lived life among family, friends, and the delights and dangers of the natural world. Like the garden that pervades so much of her poetry, Katz’s lyrics exhibit beauty, variety, and the poet’s always nimble care—they are the quickenings of a hard-won and vividly practiced cultivation.”
—Daniel Tobin, author of Belated Heavens
“Migrations is a quiet, closely observed and deeply felt collection of poems that celebrate and mourn the beauties of the mutable world. Formally varied and luminously clear, these poems console and disquiet in equal measure. They possess what another age would call knowledge of the human heart.”
—Alan Shapiro, author of Tantalus in Love
"Of all the many good poems in Migrations, the one I like the best is Nestlings, where the varieties of declamatory stress and rhythm against the underlying meter create dramatic (and, in context here, ominous) compression. It's a bit like Gerard Manley Hopkins, but in a minor key. Nature red in tooth and claw threatens even the human toddler, whose parents had better catch and hold him fast. I also like Union Village Dam, which reminds me of Frost's Directive; Chickadees, which belongs with Frost's sonnet, Never Would Birds' Song Be the Same; the Dylan Thomas-ish Weather Report; the Yeatsian Mirror Image and Changes (cf his Wild Swans at Coole); and Tenacity (Frost again, in spades). Your stuff is in the traditional mainstream, to which you add your own individual, reflective and refined voice."
—Edward Selig
Reviews for All Roads Go Where They Will
"Phyllis Katz's poems are spare, unforced, and ring with clarity. Though they are perfected, they always move beyond their own perfection to something else, something miraculously tender for which only they are the words."
—Vijay Seshadri, author of The Long Meadow
"Phyllis Katz's poetry is rich with the color and music of hope. Every image, every word captures the spirit and the courage of human survival. The struggle to embrace a world she cherishes radiates from her lyrics with an elegance that is accessible and a joy to read."
—"Do" Roberts, Editor of Bloodroot Literary Magazine
About the poem Winter Midnight in the Village
"Thank you for sharing your awe with all of us, bringing us your experience in such a way that it is now the reader's too. Your word choice, the flow of skiing, the quiet in all that snow is musical, poetic, and spiritual to me. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your work."
—Mary Jo Ballistreri
About the poem Tempests
I greatly enjoyed your fine poem in the Weekly Avocet. On a check of the painting it is sound in both substance and mood, and I love the rolling cadence, especially in the first few stanzas. As a bonus I learned a new word: ecphrastic. One can always expect good things from dartmouth.edu.
—Jim Hudson,Dartmouth ’48
Mountains and rainbow, Norwich, VT
(Photo by Arnold Katz)
