The Company of Heaven

By Jeffrey Skinner

Book Overview

"In his new collection of poems, Skinner's souls "prefer Ireland and Africa," his angels "clean fish down at the docks / and live . . . on the black side of town" and faith is "shy and eager to please / like a homely child." Such a deft, even comic, touch keeps his quasi-religious cargo from sinking under its own weight. He maintains this delicate balance in poems such as "Dangerous Teaching" "Oh children, I say, do you / believe? And they rise, and shuffle, and turn / gratefully to the door . . ." Skinner is most successful when his imagination leaps, less successful in the abundance of "memory" poems that clutter this book. He seems to acknowledge the dangers of sentimentality when he comments: "This poem / has gotten away from me, / I know, what sometimes happens / when you speak of memory." Frequently, Skinner returns to his own and his daughters' childhood because "it is the only country / where we completely understand the language." There are many slack poems here, poems that begin with a flashy metaphor and go nowhere. But Skinner's ( A Guide to Forgetting ) best work is like his angel's fish scales--"shining iridescent." One only wishes there were more of it."--Publisher's Weekly

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822954818
• ISBN13: 9780822954811
• Release Date: December 1992
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 70 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"