Cool Gardens by Serj Tankian Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cool Gardens
Book Review: mostly mediocre
Summary: 2 Stars
Um, I guess I'll be the one to give this book a coherent and comprehensive review. I'm a huge SOAD fan, but I will review this book as a fan of poetry, not a fan of the band.
On the positive side, its cute how the book is designed to feel like a little notebook you can flip through and read someone's innermost thoughts. On the downside, thats pretty much all this book is: Tankian's innermost thoughts. Its bad, bad poetry. Its nice that Saul Williams gave him a blurb for the back of the book, but I don't think it necessarily means something. Its nice that Saul Williams may like his work. Ezra Pound may have liked the poetry of his 16 year old neice. You see what I mean? In any case, illusions aside, Serj Tankian is NOT Saul Williams. And he likely never will be. He used his notoriety to get a book published by MTVBooks - they're notorious for publishing books by people who are merely famous. If Tankian tried to get ANY of these pieces submitted to a magazine, (and I don't mean a rock magazine) he would be rejected. He likely would be told that he needs to "work on it." He has potential but thats about it.
Some of these poems are downright cliche: the "first entry" on the "virgin" page and similar hackneyed metaphors. An example comes from "Her Eye": 'her eyes, the sea at dusk/ sun curl golden hair/ radiant creator of life..' The structure of the poems is always the same. His rhyming scheme is ALWAYS the same. Most of this sounds like rhyming for the sake of rhyming, and this does NOT make a "poem." For example, from 'primrose': "a primrose, i suppose/with a prominent nose/ and a portrait of a naughty girl/ as a hose." this rhyming scheme sums up about 90% of the book.
The rule of poetry is to use the best words to make the most interesting points in the shortest amount of space. And most of the words he uses to describe his views and ideas are anything BUT powerfull or interesting.
And just because/
you divide some lines/
into stanzas and state your opinion/
doesn't mean you are/
a poet OK?
A good example of this comes from "nations": 'chase the children into the desert/ let them frizzle away and fry' This linguistic brilliance unfortunately sums up a large portion of the book. Not all the poems are bad. When his style works for the idea, he really hits the nail on the head. You should really consider if you want to go through 80% crap to get to the good ones. Is that worth your money?
Most of the poems are amatuer and mediocre. Many are on the skill level of a child or bored teenager. Its sort of sad, because this is Serj Tankian: we fans want to expect great things from him. But this book is very, very not great. If you are more interested in Tankian's ideas and views on life, then get this book. What I mean is, if you are more of a fan of Tankian than poetry, then get this book.
If you need good poetry, you probably shouldn't get this book.
If you consider yourself a "poetry snob", skip it, because you will be agitated and annoyed very very often.
Yes, Serj Tankian is a great musical artist; yes, he is very intelligent and has many interesting ideas; yes, his heart is in the right place. But is he a good POET? No.
Unfortunately, I have to agree with the harsh words of a previous reviewer: This is a good example of why poetry is dying
Book Review: music
Summary: 5 Stars
These are poems and lyrics to my favorite music, so i naturally enjoyed the whold book.