THE ZIGZAG WALK
By
John Logan writes poems with special people and incidents in mind, giving his poems a highly intimate and personal tone. The notion of the ""zigzag walk"" Occurs in one of his best poems, ""Big Sur: Parkington Cove"" which is in fact a narrative account of a walk he takes With severe friends, that later turns into a fantasy in which the poet sees the. ""Blackbearded thieves/ and smugglers"" reputed to live in the cove. This transformation of the commonplace into the far away characterizes the nature of much of John Logan's work. Some of his more ambitious Works --the poems after Melville and after Georg Trakl-- don't hold up as well, as if the poet is out of his element. For the most part however he appears as a poet of charm and some character.