Paper Boat

By Cullen Bailey Burns

"The title Paper Boat might suggest fragile poems, graceful but light. Not so."-- Conrad Hilberry [poem] I Have Made a Paper Boat and set words aflame upon water, a message the lake carries to the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898232139
• ISBN13: 9780898232134
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: New Rivers Press
• Length: 72 Pages
• Weight: 0.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

An Important New Voice in American Poetry

_Paper Boat_ lyrically captures the magic that occurs between the lines of our daily lives. Cullen Bailey Burns transforms the details of her own life into an exhilarating experience for her readers that is at once emotional and philosophical. This collection of poetry does what most excellent literature does: it reaches its readers on an individual level ("this is my unique story") and on a public level ("there are aspects of my story that are your story and your story and your story"). Burns' unique story co-exists with her sorrow at the unexpected death of her only sister. While Burns focuses in many poems on her regular companion, grief, she also connects on the wavelength of poetry with "someone else's calamity"(26). We have all heard "how the past / rattles its bones until they sound like words" (16). Poems such as "The Word for Building Her Back," "On Longing," and "Milk Money" offer an ache so beautiful it is hard to let go. But that is exactly what happens in the last poem, "I Have Made a Paper Boat." Burns says good-bye to her sister: "I have made a paper boat / and set words aflame upon water, / a message the lake / carries to the dead." She bids "her safe passage" (53).For regular readers of poetry, _Paper Boat_ is a debut book you will not want to miss. Any reader experiencing a difficult loss would be consoled by this magnificent and heartfelt collection.

A fresh new voice in MN poetry

In a regional poetic environment dominated by bad prose hacked into seemingly arbitrary line lengths, Cullen Bailey Burns has delivered a surprising and refreshing debut collection...literally overflowing with lyricism and musicality. Her creative wordplay and precise enjambment combine to form delightful verse that both pleases the eye and rolls off the tongue. But her work hits its mark only about 50% of the time...and it's not even until the middle of the book that the reader sees Burns at her best. The remaining poems suffer from weak endings, unclear purpose, or else never really move beyond trite musings."Paper Boat" is a 2004 Minnesota Book Award nominee for poetry. To be nominated alongside literary greats like Wang Ping and Louise Erdrich is both an honor and a challenge. Let's hope Burns focuses on the latter and does not rush her sophomore collection, but instead produces a work of weightier themes that is also substantial enough in size to withstand more ruthless editing and culling. There are far too many poets---regionally and nationally---who seem content to produce self-indulgent verse about gardens and kids and grief and parents and students and other tired, middle-class subjects. To remain relevant, Burns will need to expand her horizons.