Really, really good poetry collection. Fit that sweet spot with personal emotion, connecting large and small scale observations, languages that surprised and made you work, but not so sterile and formal to be uninteresting. This had selections from her first five books, so it was skimming the cream but it also allowed a look at the different styles that she has worked in. There were a lot of great poems here, but two of my favorites were 'For You' and 'Song of the Last Meeting.'

You can tell this collection was written by an English professor, as there are two camps of commercial modern poetry -- talentless moody instagram poetry with about 12 motivational words per poem, and weird obscure poetry written by English professors. Not that it's not good weird, obscure poetry. It is, but I found myself wanting to race through many of them because they just didn't hit me. There were a few that I really liked, that made me stop and read them twice and really make note of them.

This was another book that deleted itself from my reader before I got to finish it, so I won't be able to publish a review online. I really hate that the vast majority of ADE ARCs are self destructive after x number of days. We reviewers are doing this for free and often have a large pile of books to read in the allotted time frames. They're covered with watermarks and we're not selling them or profiting in any way off of them. Why on earth can't you at least let us keep a watermarked review copy for our troubles?

In any case, what I saw was interesting and fun to read in parts, and in other parts it was.... fine. I would have liked more emotion and metaphor, but it's a well done collection for its genre.

Maureen N. McLane is the author of several previous books of poetry, including Some Say; Mz N: the serial: A Poem-in-Episodes; and the 2014 National Book Award finalist This Blue. Her book My Poets, a hybrid of memoir and criticism, was a finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography.

McLean is a Professor of English at New York University where her research interests are British romanticism/English and Scottish literature and culture, 1750-1830; twentieth-century and contemporary North American poetries; modernity, mediality, poetics; human sciences and literature.

*

Song of the Last Meeting
Maureen N. McLean

A few roses were blooming
on the almost bare trellis.
Your hair was now short.
I had never seen you that way.

All morning I’d wondered
whether to wear this
or that skirt.
It might have mattered.

It was strange to see you
in a new house
shining as you sat
in a necklace of raw flowers.

And when later at the café
you were so quick to flare
at any casual thing I said
I saw how you must have flashed
for all your lovers.

*

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @fsgbooks for an ARC of ‘More Anon: Selected Poems’ by Maureen N. McLane.

More Anon: Selected Poems collects poems from Maureen N. McLane's previously published books and strings them together in a new and intense collection. I definitely could tell how much work went into all of these poems, and I think having the chance to read poetry from various stages of McLane's life is valuable. The unabashed way McLane approaches all facets of life in her poetry was something that I really respected, as it makes it very clear that she is able to own up to all decisions she makes. This type of "radically honest, no matter the cost" poetry is interesting as it's less stereotypically lyrical in a lot of ways but allows for more rhyme scheme opportunities. I wish that there had been a little more description of the emotional side of McLane, but the lack of this doesn't negate the other good parts of her writing.

As an occasional poet, I can see McLane's thought process in several poems, and while it's different from how I approach poetry, it's still valuable. This was not my favorite collection of poetry that I have read recently, but I did enjoy reading it nonetheless.

Overall rating: 2/5

More Anon will be available for purchase on July 20th. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf and see where it's available to buy. Also, be sure to check out Maureen N. McLane’s profile on the Poetry Foundation's website!
I was lucky enough to be able to read this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This was an electronic ARC from Netgalley and the publisher.

More Anon gathers poems from McLane’s 5 preview poetry works.

What I Didn’t Like:
-In my opinion, poetry should be about emotion. These fell a little flat for me. I had trouble relating to what the author was saying, even when rereading. They didn’t land for me, basically.
-Metaphors are stunted. They felt like things I’d heard before. Nothing that stood out or will remain in my brain later.
-Sd for every instance of said got on my nerves. I’m aware that’s a weird thing to mention.

What I Did Like:
-The white space on many of the poems is tantalizing. I enjoy white space. I enjoy the way it forces you to pause and gives a visual shape to the words. This poetry collection does a good job with that.
-No holding back. It’s clear this poet isn’t afraid to put life and normally taboo topics into her poetry. I applaud her for that.
-Rhyme scheme. Although not all poems need (or have) rhyme patterns I did enjoy the occasional one in this collection that did.

Who Should Read This One:
-Poetry, even more than most mediums, is incredibly subjective. This one didn’t reach out and grab my emotions, but it might grab yours! If you’re a poetry fan, give it a try.

My Rating: 2 Stars. For me poetry should be lyrical and emotional. The fact that I couldn’t connect to this one made it problematic. But, again, poetry is incredibly subjective and you may feel VERY differently.

I found this poetry collection very difficult to follow and read. While I understand very well that poetry is subjective, I feel many people won't be able to enjoy the collection to its fullest just due to the difficulty of reading it.

More Anon is lovely poetic work; a constellation of an author’s work well worth many visits on the page.