EVERYBODY GETS LOST IN BROOKLYN

Fun, captivating poems little poems less about being lost than being found.

Korduba’s first collection of poems are spare but jolly vignettes, the products, no doubt, of many years of city living and keen observation of the natural world. In the foreword, Korduba sarcastically laments the current (and ongoing) decline of poetry, saying, “if only a verse could be appended to an exploding car chase, it might stand a chance of getting noticed,” but the pieces that follow are hopeful and light. “Cleaning Day,” for example: “In my cluttered apartment / chaos is king / and I’m sure his crown / is around here somewhere.” The warmth and humor of Korduba’s tone is charming, informing the tiny metaphors, composed mostly in free verse, that he uses to assemble his tender snapshots. Even when the topic is serious, as in “I Can’t Stay at Home” or “Despair”–“Sometimes a leaf / that has not yet turned brown / decides to fall off / anyway”–the compassion emanates from the poems. Among these little thrills of simplicity, however, are occasional hokey missteps, particularly in the pieces explicitly devoted to love, as in “The Lover’s Prayer”: “I will bend my arrows toward she that may / yet enjoy my company / and a chariot we’ll ride / in a bed not wide.” The majority of the collection, though, accompanied by thematic drawings, successfully delivers soft, empathetic candor.

Versophobes and the poetically entrenched beware: Even you may be moved by these sweet imagined moments.