Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods-Set of Depressing Poetry

My overall opinion about this book is that Paula Bohince did an amazing job at putting together a detailed story through the use of poems. It reads as if it was a novel. Paula Bohince paints a picture for the reader of the farm which she describes and allows for the reader to experience all which she does in the poems. As a reader, I could see all the sights, smell all the smells and even feel the pain and suffering which is expressed in the poems. Suffering, depression, grieving and missing someone who has past are the majoring feelings found in mostly every poem. The death of the father is what the collections of poem revovles around. Religion is placed into the poems in numerous cases. A longing for answers from God is expressed in the poems. I did enjoy the poems however did not like the depressing mood of them. I would have like there to be some happiness or hope in the poem that continued more than just a line.

Paula Bohince writes each poem with great detail. I first became aware of this in the poem "Black Lamb" where she uses color to paint a picture in the readers mind. (Examples found in poem: pearl, dark silver, transparency, shiny, charred.) In the poem "Cleaning My Father's House", Paula triggers the readers sense of smell when describing how the father is remembered. (Example found in poem: "his scent of gasoline, and tobacco, pomade and Ivory soap). Paula's description of sound is seem in the poem "The Gospel According to Paul". (Examples in the poem: snakes hushes the grass, soothed by the hiss of oxygen, drip of morphine, rain hanging long of the sycamore then soaring to earth).