The Most Charming Creatures by Gary Barwin | Review by Bill Neumire

Thus, with the poem “Everything,” begins Gary Barwin’s latest poetry collection, The Most Charming Creatures. Barwin, who has written 26 books, is also a composer (he earned his PhD in music composition) and multidisciplinary artist. Progressing in four sections, The Most Charming Creatures—follow-up to Barwin’s recent 2019 Selected Poems: For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe—takes its title from a science monograph. Explaining the title in an interview with Open Books, Barwin said:

Gary Barwin | QUICKNESS

QUICKNESS 1. let there be bears when you need bears and quickness like with rocks something that says watch 2. let there be quickness like with bears let the past arrive when you need sky like a wrist let the future 3. let the bears let the quickness let the rocks the sky let the […]

Gary Barwin | WOODPECKERS AND TV

WOODPECKERS AND TV we make the forests but they suck woodpeckers do not suck woodpeckers have no forests there is no TV for woodpeckers they know the forests suck the woodpeckers are darling they do not suck there is no TV for woodpeckers we avoid the forests during firelight and with little darlings but they […]

Gary Barwin | NAMES OF THE HARE

NAMES OF THE HARE After Seamus Heaney’s translation from the Middle English a man met his left leg all is not right a man met his right leg all is still not right unless he descend from the ground what he holds in his hands what he blesses with arms how he forgets peace but […]