Bakowski's Strategic Dartboard. "Days That We Couldn't Rehearse" by Peter Bakowski

Abstract

Peter Bakowski’s Days That We Couldn’t Rehearse is in many ways the most consistent and satisfying of his five collections to date. He has cultivated strengths and eliminated weaknesses found in earlier volumes. Yet it is unmistakably Bakowski; to mimic his much-loved crime fiction imagery, his prints are all over the scene. Bakowski’s strong suit has always been the common object used to striking and, at times, surreal effect. The everydayness of his imagery, the simplicity of his language, the straightforwardness of his thought, is all of a piece with his conception of the poet’s role as speaking to the wider public. If you have admired Peter Bakowski’s other books, you will enjoy this one, too.