So I took part in this year-end books roundup with AmCon<\/a>, and once again told everybody to read Kathy Shaidle\u2019s 1998 poetry collection, Lobotomy Magnificat<\/em>. You can get a longer review from me here<\/a> but really, it\u2019s a short book, why not throw it in your basket?<\/p>\n Shaidle replied<\/a>; I thought this bit was esp interesting: \u201cA lot of people see \u2018compassion\u2019 in my poetry and other early writing that I simply don\u2019t think is there. I think they\u2019re seeing what they want to see<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n She also noted that her newer poems are available online here<\/a>. I admit these don\u2019t hit me at all the way the ones in Lobotomy do. They\u2019re the same kind of poem but not as jagged and vertiginous, not as deep. I like \u201cDream of the Rood\u201d and there\u2019s good stuff in some<\/a> of the others<\/a>, but the work in Lobotomy<\/em> is on another level. (Which, among other things, means that if the online stuff doesn\u2019t do it for you, you should still check out her book.) I take Shaidle\u2019s point that she\u2019s in a different place now, and will just be grateful that the earlier work is out there.
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