Roberto Bolaño’s novel The Savage Detectives chronicled a literary movement named “the Visceral Realists.”  Crow: from the Life and Songs of the Crow by Ted Hughes offers the reader a kind of visceral realism.  The poetry cycle recounts the life and times of Crow, a folkloric character, comedian and trickster.  The collection ranges across various types of poems: fairy tales, lullabies, legends, comedic shtick, and parody.  Like the crows one sees everyday, Crow scrabbles in waste, carrion, and garbage.  He is a scavenger, appropriating things, a collector of junk.  The poem titles bear this out, “Oedipus Crow,” “Crow Tyrannosaurus,” and … Continue reading Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow, by Ted Hughes