Oracle of Hollywood Boulevard
The frank, raw lyrics of Dana Goodyear’s second collection draw on the scenery of Los Angeles—the teenagers, vagrants, pornographers—and the beautiful decay that serves as an insistent reminder to them all. The poems are unsparing but tender, candid but sly, and open to the force of nature on an individual human life.
“Dana Goodyear is a lyric poet descended from the Roman poet Catullus. She mixes realism with a lush perceptual awareness of the West, and an astutely sympathetic vision.”—HENRI COLE
“Dana Goodyear’s lyrics give off a gemlike glint. Bursts of pressurized intelligence flare up in every line. The laser focus of these poems, their economy, and their steadiness of gaze are enthralling.”—AMY GERSTLER
Review in The Los Angeles Times
Honey and Junk
These powerful poems are like wrecked pastorals whose narrator seeks temporary pleasure in wit, form, rhyme, or the borrowed weekend house. Inching toward consolation in the face of sudden loss, the poet examines the reconfigured world. The elegies are like conversations overheard or recounted dreams: full of portent and mystery.
“Wit and anger are the dominant modes of Dana Goodyear’s poetry, two emotional defenses employed as a solution— and a solvent—for grief. In the best poems of this powerful debut collection, she presents a persona that is at once haughty and devastated, and capable of some brutal punch lines.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Dana Goodyear skates over very thin ice as though there were nowhere else, telling fragments of hopes, losses, memories—reflected in thin ice. It is a disturbing vision recounted by a captivating voice.” —W.S. MERWIN
“Honey and Junk is the most breathtaking debut in years!”—J.D. MCCLATCHY