Taking the Occasion

The eighth winner of the New Criterion Poetry Prize is Daniel Brown’s Taking the Occasion. From its opening lines, his book sounds a new note in poetry: The thing about the old one about / The tree in the forest and nobody’s around / And how it falls maybe with a sound, / Maybe not … In poem after poem, Mr. Brown plays urban speech rhythms (much as Robert Frost played rural ones) across the back-beat of meter and rhyme. Distinctive in matter as well as in manner, Taking the Occasion addresses subjects that range from a moment’s fancy to stirring ruminations on existence. In a time when many poets see subjects as superfluous, Brown demonstrates the abiding power of an arresting premise, much as music derives life from a memorable tune. His work repeatedly sounds emotional or philosophical depths, yet he isn’t above eliciting a laugh in the process.