Provocative verse set to the rhythm of the tracks.
A debut book of poetry that celebrates one of the oldest, most venerable forms of mass transit.
Two admirable urges drive Newcomb’s new collection of train poems. The first is the author’s sense that Americans have left their vast continent unexplored; they rush off to Europe and the Caribbean without realizing that a treasure trove awaits right off the nearest rail line. Therefore, much of his verse celebrates the beauties of the landscape he sees on his own numerous rail trips. “Montana Daybreak” presents that state’s “highest hills…aglow with light. / Herons continue to sleep in the trees by a marsh / And coyotes search for prey by the smell, / Unafraid of men.” A later poem, “Mountain Winter above Stevens Pass,” gives a glimpse of one of Washington state’s gems: “Skyline Lake, frozen deader than a doornail, / Has cleared the sky of trees. / Somewhere underneath the buried, silent ice, / Hibernating frogs and cold sluggish fish EXIST.” In his nature poetry, Newcomb resembles the poet Gary Snyder, who mixes unpretentiousness with a keen attention to detail in his own celebrations of the Pacific Northwest. The second force animating Newcomb’s verse is his desire to encourage others to shift toward more sustainable forms of transportation. (The poet is also an accredited greenhouse-gas analyst.) In other words, he seems deeply aware of the fact that train travel will help people protect the natural wonders they see on their journeys. Thus, a sense of ecological responsibility anchors poems such as “Thoreau on Wildness,” which opens with Henry David Thoreau’s famous reminder, from his essay “Walking,” that “In wildness is the preservation of the world.” As that poem wraps up, Newcomb writes, “Thoreau hoped that we might have the capacity / To appreciate wildness / And to feel the connection between ourselves and nature, / But he knew from his travels / That men will change or eradicate wildness.” Train travel, the author hopes, will help us appreciate more and eradicate less.
Provocative verse set to the rhythm of the tracks.Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9877268-6-5
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Neshama Books
Review Posted Online: May 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.
A slim volume of largely gay-themed writings with pessimistic overtones.
Poe (Simple Simon, 2013, etc.) divides this collection of six short stories and 34 poems into five sections: “Art,” “Death,” “Relationship,” “Being,” and “Reflection.” Significantly, a figurative death at the age of 7 appears in two different poems, in which the author uses the phrase “a pretended life” to refer to the idea of hiding one’s true nature and performing socially enforced gender roles. This is a well-worn trope, but it will be powerful and resonant for many who have struggled with a stigmatized identity. In a similar vein, “Imaginary Tom” presents the remnants of a faded relationship: “Now we are imaginary friends, different in each other’s thoughts, / I the burden you seek to discard, / you the lover I created from the mist of longing.” Once in a while, short story passages practically leap off of the page, such as this evocative description of a seedy establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska: “It was a dimly lit bar that smelled of rodent piss, with barstools that danced on uneven legs and made the patrons wonder if they were drunker than they thought.” In “Valéry’s Ride,” Poe examines the familial duties that often fall to unmarried and childless people, keeping them from forming meaningful bonds with others. In this story, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hits Louisiana, Valéry’s extended family needs him more than ever; readers will likely root for the gay protagonist as he makes the difficult decision to strike out on his own. Not all of Poe’s main characters are gay; the heterosexual title character in “Mrs. Calumet’s Workspace,” for instance, pursues employment in order to escape the confines of her home and a passionless marriage. Working as a bookkeeper, she attempts to carve out a space for herself, symbolized by changes in her work area. Still, this story echoes the recurring theme of lives unlived due to forces often beyond one’s control.
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-3693-2
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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