A second book of poems is a beautiful thing. The first date has come to a close, the first kiss remembered, yet the nervous sweaty palms are ever-present as we tango with getting down to the details of the matter. A second book of poems, as is the case with Jason Guriel, presents the opportunity to dig beyond the surface, no longer skirting truths, but instead relishing in disclosure of the personal, the abstract, the purity of fragments making a whole.
In Pure Product, Guriel takes pleasure in the rawness of minute details, pushing the reader to see beyond minutiae and envision large-scale life in progress. His method of comparison inevitably contrasts the words presented and the images imagined, offering both an immediate sense of pleasure and a lingering need to reflect upon the work as a catalyst. The reader is alerted to such machinations within fragments of the opening poem, "Less:"
Less, being more, makes
of the tectonic plates
of molehills
a mountain ridge
the way the stark plain
of the White Album's sleeve
raises the Beatles' embossed logo
to the level of topography --
the way tiny things
can't help being, next
to nothing, something --
Within this collection, Guriel picks at the smallest details wherever possible, examining the moments in between moments, and looking deeper. Why speak of the Coke can when there is a moment full of life waiting to be prodded, before the can is opened? Instead, poems such as "Thinginess" aim to exploit the nano-details, and "isolate / the thinginess / from its thing" as with "the pushback / of a Coke can / before it gives / way to your compacting grip."
Too, Guriel tantalizes us with his approach to the traditional, freeing the reader from preconceived poetic notions with his "Spineless Sonnet," and instead teasing us with modern skill and seemingly effortless craftsmanship. The sonnet reappears with the "Five Sonnets for Summer Storage in the High School Book Room," wherein Guriel speaks of tradition, through a traditional form, yet entices the modern reader with popular themes, images, and pleasures so much so that the form is a mere stage for the poetic stars in this collection, as is the case with "2:"
When judging books by cover, don't send down
Lennon's killer, The Catcher in the Rye
in pocket-sized paperback -- Little Brown's
falsely accused suspect. Some covers lie
to readers, but not Salinger's, bound in
blank blurbless white, as nude as nuns' habits.
And though some fingers find cheap stock a sin,
Little Brown's thumb-blackening newsprint sits
well with my faith. Small as a Gideon
Bible -- minus God, guilt, and gold edging --
the pallid paperback tends to darken
with every semester's fingerprinting
but its soul isn't, as Holden would deem,
phony. Words, not their grimy covers, gleam.
Guriel's poems are wildly expressive in their complexity, yet drawing on simplicity to illuminate larger perspectives. With the concept of "Less, being more," as demonstrated within the lead poem, this collection pinpoints the smallest detail to examine its role in the larger sense of place. While doing so, the poet calls on both traditional forms and modern takes and combines learned mastery with an aesthetic of beautiful language, the familiar, and the personalized.
In the closing poem, "Footprints on the Sands of Time," we are reminded "One giant leap / for man kind / of needs one small / yet firm step in sand." The taut language and style of Pure Product zeroes in on such small steps, recognizing the moment within the moment, and encourages the reader to watch each seed grow into something more, something beyond measure. As such, Guriel ensures this second collection, our second date with the poet, is a tantalizing step toward what will undoubtedly continue as a beautiful and ever-revealing poetic relationship.
Lori A. May is a poet, novelist, and freelance writer whose work has appeared in publications such as Rattle, Two Review, and The Writer. She edits The Ambassador Poetry Project and Poets' Quarterly. More about the author is available online at www.loriamay.com.
Ten years ago we worked together at Chapters, and here we are in 2007, both of us with first books published this year. Aside from feeling I'm getting on a bit, I remember a poem of yours where you talk about carrying around The Collected Works of Billy the Kid on your back as though "an extra muscle"; did it help inspire this collection about another historical figure?
Yes, I remember that old poem, too. And, yeah, you're right: Ondaatje's early work made a big impression on me back when I was a wide-eyed, and under-read undergraduate student. I'd never heard of an author re-shuffling or re-inventing history, and had never read a contemporary longpoem before. I'd also never seen an author approach historiography or history as...continue reading
Gleaned from his four previous collections and garnished with more than a dozen new poems, Todd Swift's 'Seaway' is both a 'greatest hits' collection for those who've already read this verbally athletic Canadian-born poet at length and a comprehensive introduction for those on the European side of the Atlantic who have had, so far, only the occasional chance to get a taste of his work at the jostling, competitive buffet known as English language poetry. As such, it is long overdue. Swift, after all, has been a tireless champion of a distinctively cosmopolitan, open-minded, post-modernist strand of contemporary writing for quite some time and his work as an editor and ferociously scrupulous blogger in Budapest, Paris and, latterly, London has all too frequently occluded his reputation as a poet with a singular ability to be simultaneously learned, playful and profound...continue reading