Thru an address mixup I wasn’t receiving my Main Street Rags, and just got Winter 2014. So here goes.
I like the poem “Elmhurst,” by Joan Colby, where the narrator goes back to the town of “your” childhood. “Let the unremembered be backwashed.” and “Go back: the little store with its glass case of candies.” Much remains, though there have been changes. “Erased by a park, a prairie path for joggers…” At a certain age, looking back seems to grow into a preoccupation. “At first I am befuddled, then see /it’s your childhood you’re giving me.” With a resonant ending that moves the poem to a larger context.
Steve Cushman is also looking back in “Grandfather.” “I visited him / at the trailer park he owned…” But there is a tougher edge to this poem. “he was slumped / over the steering wheel…before I touched him / I thought of the man he used to be…” and again, there is a depth to the ending, in this case however, pointing out a narrowed corner of the narrator’s heart, a risk for the poet that I very much appreciate. It’s easy to make ourselves look righteous and shiny in a poem, much scarier to show us real and muddled.
John Gosslee adds some short, blunt poems. In “How I Pursued Her,” for instance: “a badger / after its dinner // an accountant / logging money.” Ruefully fun stuff.
Finally, I very much enjoyed the poem, “High Heels,” by Anina Robb. “She wears them to keep her man / sane.” Great enjambment. “Every day of pain / there is less of that desire.” Such a true review of what cost heels exact: “Before bed, she slaps the cramps… Blisters puncture.” And a great ending. Maybe it’s because of the animus my wife has always had to these cruel instruments. ;->
Peace in poetry,
P M F Johnson