she: insinuations of flesh brooding by The Poet Spiel - A Review
March Street Press / paper / 38 pp / 1-59661-089-1 / $9.00 / March Street Press, 3413 Wilshire Dr. Greensboro NC 27408
March Street Press
If "Plainsong" were a collection of poems, these would be them. Softly lain epiphanies
touching on a bevy of heart-sung topics.
The opening poem, "She Whispers"is a seduction by a renowned,
aged poet who lives in a trailer at the end of "a track well-worn/by
the fat tires/of a bicycle. "An "edging eighty" legend whose
"knobbiness/of her flesh/bring to mind/the awful sight/of a
walking pancreas" and "once-red hair/is twisted/much like a
robin"s nest. "The seductee is selected on the merit of his
own works and after all her years & before her end, "Her eyes/become
the eyes/of a wanting child." as "She takes my hand:/aggressively"
leaving us with a vision of "Harold & Maude".. beautiful Ruth
Gordon and a "wish/to know .../a man."I see this last scene,
musty through filtered light. I smell age and excitement. I
feel so incredibly sad.
"Arthur Won"t Be Coming Home/This Year" deals with the inevitables
of aging and its effects on marriage and family when a widow
tries to regain her life after being moved from a rambling farm
to a "tiny shoebox house". Without the majority of her possessions
or much else, she is alone and hoping "one of the grandkids
will drop by for a slice/of lemon pie on the way home from school."
A woman who "wakes each morning thinking she"s been robbed "now
" devotes her time to marking everything she possess. "Another
sad piece of life in delicate detail.
"attic thieves" is a humorous departure. A most likely typical rite to manhood
tale of a young lad enjoying the repetitive art of self-gratification
only to find out, as an adult, that he had a secret audience.
"bad start" is all the chaos of delivery emotions & pain from
the delivered point of view. " i'm a gush as powerful as
a sneeze/as fluid as a bloody nose" whose deliverer "frantically
presses back to cease the action "because "there's no place
in her life for another life" which surrenders an "alienation/from
the wrapping of my soul" and his forever after knowing.
The segue into "blood of mine" deals with the now dying mother
and their reconciliation, of sorts. A woman who has wanted death
for years, who "pressed the knives/against her throat and practiced
in a mirror" - who now lies living by machinery alone, giving
in to finally die, to leave, to remind him "she knows I am her
blood." "absent member" is a chaste relationship that gives
to reason when finally confronted, but never loses the love
beyond the negated sexuality. (Again, Spiel reminds me of one
of my favorites.. TV"s "Will & Grace")
These poems all speak, aside from the linear...straight on. And there is
a reason "Plainsong", "Harold & Maude", "Will & Grace" remain
my favorites.. Not once did I have to stop and try to figure
out just what the fuck was being said.
Email: Cheryl A Townsend
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