James Murphy's Reviews > Hummingbird Sleep: Poems, 2009-2011

Coleman Barks writes discursive poetry in the vein of John Ashbery or Patti Ann Rogers. His poems are chatty and informal, beginning in one place and after a looping, swirling journey usually ending in a point you may not have seen coming. Not all are like that. Some are more formal. My favorite of this volume is the title poem, "Hummingbird Sleep," which originally attracted me to his work. I think it one of the more breathtaking individual poems I've read in some time.