I've read all of Denise Duhamel's collections of poetry. _Kinky_ is the funniest, most focussed, most controlled, least self-absorbed, most accomplished of them all. I've given it to friends and shared it with my family, and we all absolutely love it.

There's a rumor floating around that Duhamel's got a Selected Poems forthcoming from _________. (I don't want to start a stampede). It's about time. Kinky is yet more evidence that Ms. Duhamel is quickly becoming one of our shrewdest social critics.

Modern poetry tends to drool over itself when addressing sexuality. Kinky touches on modern american sexuality with a healthy willingness to see diversity in behaviour. There is no lurid, smutty element in this book. It has no deep-seated sense of shame; that is so common as the motivation in modern poems. I felt happiness as the motovation in these poems. A good read.

This totally irreverent look at bisexuality is a wonderful, brave, fierce undertaking. No "politics" are safe in this book. Duhamel and Seaton should be commended for taboo-tackling of the highest order!This book alternates between heart-breaking ("Suicide") and very funny ("Exquisite Candidate.") Both fine poets in their own right, they team up to create a wacky little book full of surprises.

A fast, funny and furious book of poems--cowritten by two dynamic poets in their own right. This is a book for anyone that thinks poetry isn't entertaining. Hopefully, this book will encourage more collaborations between poets--if those are as good as this one, I welcome them.

Duhamel is by far the greatest female poet alive. Her witticisms are expertly crafted to give just the right zing to her poems. If one were to read the titles alone, they would get a taste for Duhamel's unique knack of capturing the true American speaker. Titles range from "When I Was a Lesbian" to "Seashore" with many in between. She holds nothing back in this incredibly humorous yet poignant account of everyday life. Get this book and get it fast. One more day without reading "Girl Soldier" is one day too many!

Duhamel explores the nature of what *the American Girl* is all about. Her savage undressing of the popular myths we live by are timely and impressive. American poetry needs more from this fine young poet

which is the title of another brilliant book of Ms. Duhamel's. There, as here, she skewers our preconceived notions about what is laughably acceptable as well as what we ridiculously reject in our present consumerist culture. We're still puritanical until it sells. Duhamel and Seaton make one hell of a team, once again (see Exquisite Politics). Oyl is a fabulous little book, and I can tell from these muscular poems these girls eat their spinach.

Taking up where EXQUISITE POLITICS left off, Duhamel and Seaton have done it again--poetically exploring the concepts of butch and femme! And what better binaries than Popeye and Olive Oyl? Blending Popeye speak (I yam what I yam...), Oulipo techniques, sestinas and pantoums, Duhamel and Seaton have written OYL, a hilarious and touching book. They interview Olive Oyl, then reinvent cartoon plots with postfeminist twists that will keep you guessing. These "girls" know how to have fun!

These poems are by turns funny, touching, and heartbreaking.I picked up this book by accident at a bookstore and have been turned on to a whole new world of poetry as a result . Read the poem "What Happened Last Week " and see things from inside someone else's skin.

I like Denise Duhamel's poems; I really do. I like the fact that she writes about real things in real time, and I like her energy. But she's kinda sloppy, and could use some self-editing. Not too much -- all that aggressive blab is what's fun about her -- but I think she's in danger of becoming a caricature of herself. Time to learn some new tricks?

Duhamel's book can get a little prosaic, and yet poems like Stranger are so true in their voice and emotion maybe everyone should just take a valium and enjoy this fabulous foray into pop culture and marriage and old age and abusive relationships and feminine protection (here and in Spain!). What unabashed fun--she gets to drop Molly Peacock's name and talk about Nick at Nite. Pick it up at the book store and read the touching "Stranger" and then read the wild "Another Poem Called 'Sphincter'" Who else is going to give you that kind of variety?

My favorite poems in the book are "Insomnio", "Art", "Star Spangled Banner", and all the rest. This poet is showing us what the coming century will bring to American poetry--an intelligent, self-assured voice that speaks to the heart and soul, to the Apollonian and Dionysian sides of human experience. Ms. Duhamel is ahead of her time.

I could barely get through the book. Duhamel's philosophy seems to be "first word, best word." The poems are without rhythm; no attention has been paid to sound. The poems are simplistic, predictable, and contain subject matter that has been written about by many other poets with greater success. Sadly, the poems, for the most part, are without heart and do not reach for the universal--they are self-indulgent and boring.

Denise Duhamel is very much so a woman. Her poems deal with modern day issues of women today, and still have the sound and rhythym that is appealing to the mind. In one collection you can take a trip down memory lane and think back on the nights where you would stay up watching television like "Nick at Nite" or the day you felt beautiful for the first time and felt like you could be completely exposed in front of someone like in "For the One Man Who Likes My Thighs". Women can relate to the pressures of being beautiful and somewhat psychotic efforts we take to get there. She's real.

Upon reading her poem Nick at Nite, you will understand just why I like Ms. Duhamel's work. It's crass, frank, funny, and altogether moving. The only question I would pose her if I did have the chance is whether her play on the words Nick at Nite was intentional or not. Either way if you enjoy witty poems with a bit of sentimentality to it this book is for you.