The poems found in this collection are a dichotomy with the title and cover. The watercolor image and the title Playful Song Called Beautiful made me think that these would be lighthearted poems, or at least poems celebrating the good in the world.

They're not.

The poems are ugly things, full of depression and ennui and a desolate darkness and hopelessness. There are images of pus and shit and disease and other things. Blair turns my expectations upside down and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. (I mean, there's a poem here that I'm pretty sure is about your pet dogs eating your body after you're dead.)

There may be genius here. The imagery is certainly vivid enough, but I'm not sure what the author is trying to convey in many of them, other than a dark ennui and a pessimistic view on life.

As he says:
"It is still a terrible
world, friend. Be grateful."

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

Playful Song Called Beautiful by John Blair is the co-winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize for 2015. Blair is the author of the award-winning collection of short stories American Standard, which won the Drue Heinz Literature Award, one of the world's most prestigious prizes for short fiction, as well as three prize-winning collections of poetry.

Blair's collection compliments co-winners Tigue's collection System of Ghosts as it takes different subject matter and creates the same type of art. Playful Song Called Beautiful includes science a main feature. This year it seems that geology and plate tectonics are popular poetry themes. Blair, however, takes the reader father with references to quantum physics and he does it in a way that seems very natural and flowing. There is no forcing the subject into verse; It is completely unpretentious. There is even a play on quark particles and with Joyce’s "Three Quarks for Muster Mark."

There are passing references made through the book of famous historical figures like Rumi, Faulkner, Nietzsche, Oswald, Goethe, and Galileo. The wide range of writers, thinkers, and even the assassin is mixed with a variety of locations including Oklahoma. Fort Sill, Oklahoma is the home of Geronimo’s unmolested grave and Tulsa, the home of Six Flags Over Jesus -- Oral Roberts University.

The title is represented by a short poem taken from a translation on a Chinese children’s record. It is followed by other badly translated into English phrases. Surprisingly, it works very well -- enjoyable so. Blair does an excellent job of combining complex subjects into poetry and making them more understandable than they are in prose. Converting sophisticated subject matter into enjoyable reading is an art in itself. An excellent collection and well deserving of the Iowa Poetry Prize.
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I'm not a poet nor a poetry enthusiast or whatever. With that said, this was okay. Maybe it's just me, but I didn't really understand a whole majority of the poems, and when I thought I was finally understanding, things got complicated and confused me once more. Maybe my lack of understanding is because I don't read enough poetry to get it. I don't know.

From what I read, the cover and the title seem "out of place" because... (more via website) ( )

***This book was reviewed for University of Iowa Press via Netgalley***

Blair’s Playful Song Called Beautiful is certainly one of the more unusual poetry collections I’ve read. This collection was the winner of the Iowa Poetry Contest. These poems are rich with unique symbolism. That sometimes backfires though, when symbolism is so unique to the poet that any thread of language commonality is lost, as can be the case here at times, leaving casual readers confused and adrift.

Blair has a certain knack for playing with language, making the sounds flow, thick and heavy as molasses that hardens to amber around the unsuspecting reader. Protests are silenced, the mind stilled and forced to contemplate the indifferent chaos of the world, and the miasma of violence and judgement that surrounds society. The only qualms I had with this collection were the pessimism laced like arsenic throughout, and an overwhelming focus on aspects of destruction.

'Law of the Excluded Middle’ is one of the poems that stood out for me, for a few reasons. First, I had just been speaking of Percy and Mary Shelley right before I read this particular poem. Second, the eye references freaked me out! Another favourite turned out to be the poem that lent the collection its name. 'Playful Song Called Beautiful’ is nothing more than poor (language)-English translations, stitched together in some semblence of greater meaning. The ending to this poem is perfect! Not only that, but the sign 'tiny grass is dreaming’ conjures sweet, gentle notions lost in many of these poems.

🎻🎻🎻🎻 Recommended for those who enjoy the vibrant life commentary only a poet can deliver. This collection will give you much to ponder over.