part of review for "Prairie Suite: A Celebration"

            Moving from small insects to birds to stars, Hansen’s view on nature is clearly portrayed.  Whether describing the food of owls or the snake sunning itself, there is a sense of adoration for all parts of the Midwest prairie involved.  Between describing the prairie and animals Hansen also questions more prophetically; stating “Is the beauty of this broken world, then, to grapple with,/ to understand” (25).  These over-arching themes of purpose or reason make the collection cohesive.  Another aspect of the collection is the point of view described in a few singular poems.  In “Grasshopper” the reader is given it’s point of view, it’s voice, the voice of the grasshopper itself.  By doing this Hansen not only describes the scene of a life as a grasshopper but its thoughts and emotions.  “My affectionate song echoing in the wind” (15).  Portraying nature through the lens of a bug rather than a human is an interesting tough even though it happens sparingly. 

            Some places in the collection Hansen veers away from describing single animals and bugs and describes the earth, walking on the ground, the summer, fall, and evolution.  These more general poems are scattered throughout the collection but, they act as landmarks to a bigger whole- the prairie.  All of these ideas of the earth, change, and seasons are part of the larger whole focus of the collection. 

            The speaker’s observations of the natural world of the prairie surround the reader in these poems.  Along with the art paired with every poem, the reader can feel, see, and hear the isects, wind, and animals.  By writing as if completely surrounded by this landscape, Hansen has created a collection of poems separate from the world of city scape most of us live in.  These observations, made throughout the collection, are made through patience for both writer and reader.  

Part of review for "the lake has no saint"

The varied form that the poems take is intriguing.  The poet has changed how a reader looks at a poem.  The definition of poetry is skewed in this collection due to the lack of fundamental sentence structure in every poem.  For example, in “when after you have exhausted the possibilities”, there is one sentence for the entire poem with the period being at the very end.  This is striking.  Obviously, there are fragments included that change how the poem is read aloud or seen on the page.  Without separate sentences or pauses the poem is read with more force, perhaps faster.  Many of the poems act this way.  The form influences how the poem is read and where the focus is for the subject at hand.  “Not” is repeated many times, created a friction for the speaker of the poem.  “i will not paint the new house blue” is repeated numerous times creating force and emphasis there. 

            The lack of capitalization also lends itself to the defacing fundamentals of writing.  Why not capitalize?  This is included in every poem.  Even states are not justly capitalized.  This could be done to make all words equal, not more important than another and the focus is put on the poem itself.  (This then, could be said of gender, the topic at hand; all people are equal.)  Or, simply, it could be the stylistic choice of the writer.