Review: Dark Roads by Bruce Boston (an overview)

This is the overview. The following discuss the career-retrospective collection in detail:

• Part 2: Opening Poems
• Part 3: Boston Hones the Bostonian Style
• Part 4: The U-Turn
• Part 5: The Harvest
• Final Part: 6: Circling Back

I have reviewed several of the long poems collected in this career retrospective (forty-one years: 1971-2012) here and here at SF Site.* Back then, "She Was There for Him the Last Time" was a favorite, and "The Last Existentialist" well pleased.

For the voters of the Rhysling award, both "In the Darkened Hours" and "Confessions of a Body Thief" won the award while "Dark Rains Here and There" and "Pavane for a Cyber-Princess" were runner-ups. "The Lesions of Genetic Sin" placed third. This collection is up for the Bram Stoker award for best poetry collection and looks to be a strong contender.

What strikes me on rereading these is the remarkable road map of Boston's career, the main routes and subsequent detours. It not only made a U-turn but also circled back.

He opens with a surrealistic look at what his generation is concerned with, and later makes a break both in viewpoint and treatment. Along this dark road, he develops the Bostonian™ voice and, finally, uses that voice to reexamine the world from Boston's own surrealistic stance.

M. Wayne Miller beautifully illustrates the collection. A sampler (four long poems and accompanying illustrations) can be found here.  I highly recommend it as it contains much of Boston's best work. I'll reread it again to see if I have more to add.

*Rereading the reviews was like running into a doppelganger--someone who could have been me but wasn't. The humor and length surprised me as my review methodology has changed since becoming a teacher:  more "Get in and get out." Say what needs to be said and no more, but longer reviews have their pleasures.