Sleeping with the Dictionary (Volume 4) (New California Poetry)

Poems from this book linger in my mind for a long time. I often purchase this as a gift for my poetry loving friends. Mullen is amazing--I recommend all of her books of poetry.

Wildly inventive language poetry from one of its master practitioners. At times, many times, ROFL funny, often heartbreaking, and even more often both at once, these poems are gold for all creative writers who want to improve the prose style. Harryette Mullen gets under the skin of language. Some of these poems are so airy they seem to have been dashed off effortlessly. Others cost who knows how many pints of blood. Rae Armantrout fans are probably already all over this one, but for those who aren't, it's time to do yourselves a favor and get with the program.

A stand by: a must read for all poets and scholars. You will enjoy Mullen’s delightful wordplay and syntactical precision on the page.

Where being an intellectual and creative writer meet!

One of my favorite books of poetry; it has stayed with me through the years since I first read it. Mullen has so much fun playing with language. But she also shares deeper, subtle messages about society and human nature through her playful compositions.

A classic

This ts not poetry. Threw it out.

When reading Sleeping With the Dictionary, by Harryette Mullen, you should take breaks for Arabic food, for seed-planting, for bathroom remodeling and bootleg movies. You should read it over a breakfast of chicken coated with pomegranate juice, crazy Hickory Farms mustard, and sunflower oil. You should use the book cover as a bookmark. You should understand irony.An appreciation of Mullen's collection will come easier to those who have been to California, studied Spanish, been in love, and lived with a group of language poets. She writes about her life cryptically. She revives words from the depths of the dictionary, putting them in front of us like sad and forgotten children or shameful secrets. These words - they still mean something. These words could change things.Mullen doesn't seem to be a fiction writer or a poet to me. Or maybe she's both. I enjoyed reading the book. I had to take it slow and absorb each page (in fact, I'm still reading it). The fact that the book bears the National Book Award seal on the cover doesn't surprise me at all. This is an excellent book!

genuis poems.