The poet employs colloquial diction, references pop and classical culture, and travels at 1000 miles per hour in his fourth collection. For those who think contemporary poetry is about abject confessions, vacation in Provence and opaque ‘academicisms,’ McDaniel is an intro to a new world.
About the Author :
Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of five books of poetry, most recently Chapel of Inadvertent Joy. Other books include TheEndarkenment, The Splinter Factory, The Forgiveness Parade, and Alibi School. His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry. A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, he teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in the Hudson Valley.
Review :
Even if you count yourself among the unredeemed who claim they don't like poetry, buy this book anyway. It will convert you and install a skylight in your brain. Alive and kicking in these pages is the voice of a brilliantly comic consciousness. McDaniel is a candid, frisky survivor: hyperalert, conversant with drugs and sobriety, obscene phone call addicts, 'boner etiquette,' fatherhood, the special hell of family, being an 'emotional warrior' and so much more. He's an urban wordsmith of the first order. You hold in your hands his anguished autobiography, a smorgasbord of famished compassion, tenderness, luminous surprises, and armor-piercing humor.
It was an energetic moment when I encountered Jeffrey McDaniel for the first time. Even after a few lines it became obvious that he was someone who produced not only a very vivid but also innovative poetry. A fusion of pain and goodness, comic reliefs, and explosive moments on the crunchy surface of daily horrors/shocks.
McDaniel possesses one of the most extraordinary senses of metaphor in which I have ever taken delight. His work abounds in metaphor and simile, each or both always revealing an utterly lucid, rich, complex, passionate, contradictory, original way of confronting/praising this business of walking around on earth. Read his books, listen to him read his poems aloud: it will change you.
Known for his commanding stage presence as a reader, McDaniel trades hard in his fourth book on his rough-and-tumble persona—a recovering addict from the working class streets—while also showing softer sides . . . McDaniel's sometimes awkward, if earnest searching might just be what allows him to find moments of great beauty, humor and stillness.
McDaniel zings metaphors across the page like he's the Robin Williams of poetry. . . . Frequently moving and inventive, with enough lightheartedness and whimsy to balance the heaviness of the darker moments. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of reading this poet, 'The Endarkenment' serves as a stunning introduction to his work.
The prime virtue of [McDaniel's] 'The Endarkenment' is that the usual literary assumption of attained wisdom is gently mocked, even as the necessary effort towards clarity is made.
McDaniel is known for his talent performing his poems, however his voice doesn't lose its impact in written form. It may be more powerful because the reader can view the poet's unique ideas and phrases over and over until their various meanings sink in.
