Book Review: Tony Hoagland's Unincorporated Persons

Warning, I generally report only on books I like.


Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty (Graywolf Press 2010) is Hoagland's third book of poetry and the first I've read. (Where have I been?) I read what most people would consider quite a bit of poetry, usually a couple of books per week, so when a book stands out for me, I think it should mean something.

Consider these lines from the poem, "Wild":

The penalty for disobedience will be
bears: large black furry fellows

drinking from your sprinkler system,
rolling your trashcans down your lawn,

bashing through the screen door of the back porch to get their
first real taste of a spaghetti dinner

(64)

Hoagland captures the rhythms of conversational language and the nuances of irony in a way that makes his work a pleasure to read. By the way, somebody should convince Colbert to read the poem on his show.