Looking for Dragon Smoke: Essays on Poetry

It's terrific to have these essays collected in one book. With books from decades and decades of Robert Bly's brilliant career on the bookshelf, being able to go to these quintessential essays easily is a joy.

Over the years I have enjoyed Robert Bly's poetry. But his writings about poetry, its nature and other poets. His essays are often lively and sometimes written with a trenchant criticism.This book consists of a number of essays, many of which have appeared in previous publications. The title one was in what in some ways was a manifesto of Bly's, a mini anthology called "Leaping Poetry". Bly has always looked for hints of a transcendental dimension in poetry rather than just linguistics. This is perhaps a source of what he deems a wrong turning in American Poetry. This essay appeared in his volume of criticism "American Poetry" and they key essay is also reporduced here.The bulk of the essays are about other poets. As Bly mentions at one point, Seamus Heany often wrote essays about poets he loved. This is the case here for Bly, though many (e,g, on Rilke, Machado, Kabir, Teanstromer) are poets he has translated himself and are reproduced from his volumes of translations from their work. That said each essay holds here in it's own right, and provide an introduction to those poets that often holds to the transcendental aspects Bly is so keen on.Also in the book are a couple of essays I haven't read. One on Whitman looks at possible flaws in Wjitman's poetry. Bly admits he still reads Whitman despite these. And he provides insight into what Whitman also does, so this is not a complete deconstruction. Another is new to me in substance. There is a delifghtful one on Jane Hirshfield's work, a poet he has collaborated with and who is certainly sypathetic to Bly's aims. Good to see that also.In many ways this book is a summing up of some of Bly's critical essays. He is now in the last years of his life. This has a valedectory feel, though there are more that could be published as well. This is a good place to start with Bly's criticsim and a wonderful read also.