The Day's Last Light Reddens the Leaves of the Copper Beech

August 1, 2016

Among the many difficult life lessons revealed in Dobyns's 14th collection (after 2010's Winter's Journey), two seem most prominent: the realization that "each person's golden age is turned to tin" and the futility of trying to "determine/ the end of an action at the start of an action." To be human is to be a victim of chance, luck, and diminishing time, continually seduced by "the old subjects/ in slinky gowns." Exhibiting the narrative skill of a poet who has in fact published nearly two dozen novels, Dobyns's poems offer telling parables in which ordinary people--a man without friends, a would-be writer, a zookeeper--encounter "the line that separates/ what might happen from what might not," forging unpredictable yet somehow inevitable lives with whatever dignity is left to them. If generally chagrined and resigned on the surface, these modestly but exactingly crafted poems--Dobyns is a master of the subtle, embedded rhyme--are punctuated with sharp wit and a deep understanding of their besieged subjects. VERDICT Like surprising "reversals of bad luck," these lines can "help us through the dark places" and "let us greet the night." Worth considering for most collections.--Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016
In his latest collection, Dobyns, the author of 14 books of poetry (and 23 novels), offers courageous observations about the way one endures as he considers big questions about deathof his love, his friends, and himself. He never hides from the tragic and the honest. The opening poem, Stories, begins: All stories are sad when they reach their end. From the very beginning of the book, the reader understands that this poem, and so many others that follow, will focus on recognizing the truth of mortality. The second section, Sixteen Sonnets for Isabel, is a more direct dedication to Dobyns' recently deceased wife. While this may not be a book about marriage, it is certainly about the lessons the poet has learned through marriage, which he may well be more reflective about now that his wife has passed. Sprinkled throughout the collection are a half-dozen parable poems, offering more lessons and contemplation of them. Dobyns' brave and sincere poems will remind readers of their own humanness.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)