Official Review: Last Flocks of the Geese by Philip Dodd

[mmm17]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Last Flocks of the Geese" by Philip Dodd.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Last Flocks of the Geese is a collection of 129 poems written by Philip Dodd. The book does not have any particular unifying theme, but most of the poems reflect the author’s thoughts on human existence in general. Dodd’s poetry elegantly addresses a multitude of themes, ranging from day-to-day events to poetic portrayals of biblical legends. He uses images from nature, religion, art, music, literature, and domestic life to construct his poems and probe universal motifs.

Dodd uses a variety of metrical forms and is not strict about the number of syllables per line. His employment of rhyme is also dynamic and fluid. The author is clearly a great admirer of William Shakespeare – “each play of his a celebration of language and life.” In fact, quite a few poems openly reference and honor Shakespeare, or even imitate him – like “January Sonnet,” for instance. In “Ode To A Pair Of Old Slippers,” Dodd makes witty and whimsical remarks about how the legendary Bard himself could have written the poem and how the readers could “expect some academic tomes published on the matter soon.”

I particularly enjoyed the complex and elaborate ways in which seemingly ordinary events acquire extraordinary qualities in Dodd’s poems – a noteworthy positive point. “Homage To Our Russian Washing Machine” is a good example of this, as are “The Man With The Mobile Phone” and “Kite Flying.” I was also pleased by his exploration of literary references such as Kafka, Chaucer, Sartre, and Thomas More. We slowly learn who the author is as we read the poems.

But most of all, I was delighted by the outstanding musical remarks made by Dodd in many of his poems. As a matter of fact, my favorite ones in the book were “Modern Troubadours” and “Records in Your Room,” in which he reminisces about where and when he listened to music throughout his life, and which songs, bands, and singers he appreciated the most. I was amazed to see how his taste in music absolutely matches mine.

To conclude, reading Last Flocks of the Geese was a truly pleasurable experience and I have no noteworthy negative points to speak of. Additionally, it is a very well-edited book and I found no errors in it. Therefore, I rate it 4 out of 4 stars. I highly recommend it to anyone that is fond of poetry. In my opinion, only readers to which the genre does not appeal might not like the book.

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Last Flocks of the Geese
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[kandscreeley]

This sounds like a great poetry collection. I'm not much into poetry in general, but I especially don't really enjoy free verse. This does sound like it has some kind of form to it. Thanks for you thoughts on this one. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[Meg98]

Wow! This collection of poetry sounds very intriguing to me. Poetry is absolutely beautiful, but only when written well in my opinion. From your descriptions, this book seems like nothing less than great. I will be checking out this read; thank you for your excellent review!

[Janelle Juncos]

I like that the poet kind of pokes fun of himself by comparing his poetry about old slippers to Shakespearean sonnets. I've always been of the opinion that poetry is always in danger of taking itself too seriously.
I've thought before that you could go through the different playlists of my life and find a soundtrack for each season of growth. I'd like to read his version.
Great review! I'll read this one when I get the chance.

[Fazzier]

The author makes ordinary events take extraordinary qualities? That's why I like poetry; that ability to express big ideas using words. If the author has managed to do that, the he's really a pro!

I must say I loved how elaborate and fluent your review is. Thank you for bringing this book to our attention!