Rapturous rumination that’s sometimes dazzling and at other times, dimmed.
The impact of light on the human spirit is examined from religious, philosophical, and poetic perspectives in this debut literary meditation.
Babbitt (English/Hobart and William Smith Coll.), a co-editor of Seneca Review, arranges this text around a series of essays on books of hours—a genre of medieval Catholic illuminated manuscripts containing prayers, Bible excerpts, and sacred calendars. His loose-limbed commentaries explore the devotional content of the books and their tangible artistic features, including the feel of the parchment pages. (Babbitt also includes gorgeous color photographs of manuscript illustrations.) Threading through these essays is the story of Ireland’s Saint Columba, who illicitly copied a psalter belonging to St. Finnian—an ethical lapse that seemed blessed by God when Columba’s fingers started glowing with light. Babbitt takes this legend as a celebration of the divine union of light and language in “illuminated” religious literature. The essays, and especially their marginalia, wander into tangents, such as Babbitt’s boyhood memories of serving as a Catholic altar boy; the Norse god Odin’s quest for secret knowledge; and an anecdote about a British scholar who got so excited at deciphering an ancient Sumerian account of the Great Flood that he ecstatically tore off his clothes. Apart from a few lapses into academic jargon—“Scripture is the Lacanian symbolic. God is the Lacanian real”—these meanderings are erudite and engaging. Babbitt fleshes out the prose with separate poems. Some of these have religious themes, inspired by the canon of the books of hours. There are also landscapes, vignettes about birds and dogs, and intimate looks at relationships. Light imagery features prominently in most of them. The poetry is heavy going—dense with allusions, obscure asides, and untranslated Latin and Greek. Occasionally, as in “De Sanctissima Trinitate,” a stanza gels into a well-shaped poetic proposition, in this case about the mystery of the Holy Trinity: “some mysterious, reasoning thing / puts forth the mouldings / of its features from behind / an unreasoning mask.” More often, poems unfold in disjointed sprays of impressionistic imagery. In “All Along the Reservoir Road,” these form a coherent tableau to catch a traveler’s eye: “pile of bones, bag o’ bones / sun bleached scattered / progress is a winter / and no one planted the flowers growing in the lawn.” But sometimes, as in “Ad Laudes,” the jumble is so cryptic as to defy parsing: “something is a light—sun helps us / somewhere by taking / the eye’s capacity—quo ferrea primum / desinet ac toto surget gens aurea mundo— / he might even constitute / the abyss—tuus iam regnat Apollo—.” One notion Babbitt discusses in a prose section is that, rather than light's existing to illuminate objects, objects exist to register the efflorescence of light. One may be tempted to take an analogous approach to much of his poetry here—basking in the washes of vividly visual language without worrying overly much about what mere things it may signify.
Rapturous rumination that’s sometimes dazzling and at other times, dimmed.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-944682-89-7
Page Count: 90
Publisher: Spuyten Duyvil
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A short, confessional collection of imagery-driven poems.
In this collection of narrative poems, Beck-Clark produces a visual array of life moments, turning points and wisdom.
Beck-Clark finds power inside the five senses, building vividly colorful landscapes and crisp sounds to draw readers in. Beginning the collection with a graphic narrative of a bicycle accident, Beck-Clark introduces the theme of death and the temporary nature of all life, a thread that runs throughout the book. Whether speaking about health, friends’ unwise marriages, dreams or childhood memories, the author addresses aging and the grace of wisdom that can act on anyone who grows older with an open mind and open eyes. In “I remember Maxwell’s Plum” and elsewhere, Beck-Clark’s use of imagery delivers poignant verses with sharp alliteration and soundplay to awaken readers’ senses: “Then, the sprawling streetlight and / Traffic light colors zigging and zagging….We sipped the liquid candy, laughing, / Humming, slipping quarters into the juke box.” Beck-Clark punctuates her poems with striking pen drawings that feel partially mosaic and geometric while also celebrating flows, cycles and shapes. The color drawings are similar in theme and motif but markedly different, serving as breaks between the often poignant poems. The author concludes the collection with a poem about her son and the lifelong struggle between nature and nurture, between protection and empowerment. This last poem, “Special Needs Mom,” succinctly ties together the collection, ending on a universal and positive theme of love. Overall, with its conversational tone, stimulating images and sounds, the collection succeeds in depicting universal themes within particular, personal moments.
A short, confessional collection of imagery-driven poems.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484961841
Page Count: 66
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 3, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A collection of poems marked by strong political opinions and the skillful use of language.
Lenzi, in his debut book of poetry, explores his own life and the world around him.
This collection of more than 100 poems covers a lot of ground, including the poet’s own life and politics, current events, and meditations on the real and imagined lives of famous figures. The poems alternate between long, proselike pieces and groups of short, focused haiku. All are marked by their attention to the sound and rhythm of language, particularly in Lenzi’s pieces about music, such as “Bluenotes,” about a jazz performance in a bar: “Keys bounce the blue barlight / Off lean nimble fingers.” In his longer poems, Lenzi builds sentences quickly, often ending one without punctuation and beginning a new one in the next line: “I asked but rare favor / I desired no fame / but I upheld the honor / of my father’s good name.” He also includes poems on family history (“[T]hese bare-chested coal-blackened hardies / included my proud Polish granddad-in-law”), with a particularly lovely one about his long marriage: “Along country lanes / pass vignettes of our life, / more chock-a-block memoirs / than we can scoop up / with our happy / but bewildered senses.” He also writes about famous people, such as Margaret Thatcher and Frank Lloyd Wright, and even fictional characters, such as Sherlock Holmes. He includes poems on real events such as the Boston Marathon bombings, the 9/11 attacks and George Zimmerman’s trial for shooting Trayvon Martin, and all lament the losses of life. Politics also feature prominently (“[A]llowing our choice for election of scoundrels / who would foist rule-of-men and displace rule-of-law”; “Our bibles, guns, and SUVs, / And wealth such / as our hands create, / All emblematic liberties / That tyranny might confiscate”). Here, titles such as “Obamaland” and “Libertarian Lament” drive home the poet’s personal politics.
A collection of poems marked by strong political opinions and the skillful use of language.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1492330523
Page Count: 182
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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