Lloyd Jacobs

This book is a collection of 140 poems. Many of which are new, while others have been published in small magazines or in previous books of the author.

This collection has been created to be a summary of Jacobs’ work from 2015 until 2023, and constitutes the bulk of what he wants to be remembered. The subject matter of the poems are the eternal human themes of love, joy, age and death human emotions, nature and working and feeling. The title of the book bespeaks the author’s intent that this be his last major collection.

The poetry is full of metaphor and more of lyrical ballad , with similes but no rhyming scheme, its a more of monologue kind of poetry and talking about pain in love, pain in life, with some joyous moments , some happy moments, death that is making this collection a big book of human emotions… (lisätietoja)

I was most intrigued by the poet's background - twenty years a surgeon, professor of surgery, and now as he turns 80, he mines memories to produce this lamentation and celebration of those eighty years. I wanted to love it, and some of the poems genuinely moved me: This stanza, for instance, struck a chord with me.

"He paused to riffle among the files
of his mind for things left incomplete, machine repairs or secret loves,
things unfinished that might linger
to reproach or jeer at life’s extremity."
In a few instances, I found the language a bit overwrought. Perhaps it was just me - allusions with which I wasn't as familiar as I could be.

All in all an eclectic collection that every reader will find gems, as he dips into memories of all periods of his life.

"God Damned this Fucking Virus" though, is no doubt a poem that many readers will find resonant.… (lisätietoja)

NOTE: I won a free eBook copy of this book in PDF format from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers (September 2020).

"80 Poems" is thoroughly enjoyable and poignant volume of contemporary poetry. Jacobs' verse vacillates between the accessible and the esoteric, sometimes even within the same line. (I, for one, consulted my dictionary countless times to zero in on the meaning of certain phrases). Though I am a few generations younger than the author, I found many of the poems about nature, memory, and aging relatable. Others gave me insight into a perspective I am not sure I will share when I am eighty, but made me curious about what might come. The collection is often bittersweet, but there's no question that they all encompass a life fully lived.… (lisätietoja)