January 2023 MBR The Poetry Shelf

The Poetry Shelf

A Loose Rendering
T. P. Bird
Golden Antelope Press
www.goldenantelope.com
9781952232732, $16.95, PB, 106pp

https://www.amazon.com/Loose-Rendering-Memory-Other-Considerations/dp/1952232732

Synopsis: What does it mean to think of time and memory loosely? With the publication of "A Loose Rendering: Time, Memory, and Other Considerations: Memory", preacher and poet T.P. (Tom) Bird's work helps us answer that question.

He divides his fifty "renderings" into three sections-"Time & Memory"; "Poets, Presidents and Me," and "Other Considerations." In the first, his metaphors evoke a gently self-mocking nostalgia--for a Saturday trip to a barbershop, a boyhood leap into a leaf pile, a young soldier's time in Bavaria.... Old memories become road trips into his father's past, and his grandfather's. Comfortably familiar metaphors-ice, gnarled trees, burning leaves, stone walls, full moons-code an aging man's values as he loosely reshapes a past which "never leaves you, and which you never leave."

In his second section, Bird aligns his life's path with the works and days of presidents and poets. Fourteen presidents, from Truman to Biden, and 67 poets, from Walt Whitman to Mary Oliver, stand as guideposts marking his path into and through American culture.

In his final group of poems, "Other Considerations," existential questions about time, space, memory, and meaning become whimsical word puzzles, image-fests, and philosophical debates, leading to a genuine appreciation for the beauty of the natural world and a deep, albeit cautious, faith in a creator.

Critique: Deftly crafted, thoughtful and thought-provoking, original and inspirational, "A Loose Rendering: Time, Memory, and Other Considerations: Memory" by T.P. Bird is an elegant compendium of memorable verse on subjects both individual and universal. A volume of poetry that will linger in the mind and memory long after it has been finished and set back upon the shelf, "A Loose Rendering: Time, Memory, and Other Considerations: Memory" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, and academic library Contemporary American Poetry collections. It should be noted that "A Loose Rendering: Time, Memory, and Other Considerations: Memory" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $8.99).

Editorial Note: T.P. (Tom) Bird is a retired industrial drafter/designer and Christian minister. He has published in a number of journals and is the author of a chapbook as well as three full collections.

Swallowing the Light
John Schneider
Kelsay Books
https://kelsaybooks.com
9781639801886, $20.00, PB, 100pp

https://www.amazon.com/Swallowing-Light-John-Schneider/dp/163980188X

Synopsis: Poetry is a very special gift and one of those abilities that separate human beings from the other life forms that populate the Earth. With the publication of "Swallowing the Light" American poet John Schneider debuts his genuinely impressive flair for using free verse language to reveal emotion, celebration, insight, and more.

Critique: A memorable collection of free form verse on a range of topics both intensely personal and yet universal, "Swallowing the Light" is specifically and unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, community, college, and university library Contemporary American Poetry collections.

Editorial Note: John Schneider (https://atticusreview.org/author/johnschneider) has been published in The Worcester Review, Tampa Review, The American Journal of Poetry, West Trade Review, Canary, Atticus Review, California Fire and Water: A Climate Crisis Anthology, and elsewhere. His poetry has been a Merit Award winner in the Atlanta Review 2021 International Poetry Competition He is also a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee.

The Sweetest Dance on Earth
Di Brandt
Turnstone Press
www.turnstonepress.com
9780888017352, $19.00, PB, 180pp

https://www.turnstonepress.com/books/poetry/sweetest-dance-on-earth-the.html

Synopsis: Since her debut in 1987 with the publication of "questions I asked my mother", Di Brandt has remained curious, still asking questions and pushing poetic bounds. Now for the first time, her latest volume, "The Sweetest Dance On Earth: New and Selected Poems" showcases the best work of this Griffin Award winning poet to date.

Gathered together in one place and deftly distilled into one collection, "The Sweetest Dance On Earth: New and Selected Poems" showcases Di Brandt's insatiable desire to understand, question and show the world in a new light. From her feminist work to her eco poetics, readers will get a chance to see the breathtaking career of one of Canada's most influential poets.

Critique: Elegant, eloquent, thoughtful, original, and above all, memorable, "The Sweetest Dance On Earth: New and Selected Poems" will have a very special appeal to readers who appreciate what poetry can evoke and convey with respect to the reader. "The Sweetest Dance On Earth: New and Selected Poems" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal reading lists and community/academic library Contemporary Canadian Poetry collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Di Brandt (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Di_Brandt) is one of Canada's most loved and admired poets. Her internationally celebrated and award-winning poetry titles include questions i asked my mother; Agnes in the sky; Jerusalem, beloved, Now You Care, and Walking to Mojacar. Her most recent work, Glitter & fall, is a cross-cultural trans(inha)lation of the Dao de Jing. Glitter & fall was shortlisted for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award as well as a Fred Cogswell Award. She currently teaches at the University of Winnipeg. Di Brandt is also an award-winning essayist and literary critic, and has collaborated with numerous other writers, critics and artists, including Annie Jacobsen, Jane Finlay-Young, Barbara Godard, Aganetha Dyck, Rebecca Campbell, Carol Ann Weaver and Jana Skarecky.

Melody in Exile
S.T. Brant
https://shanebrant.com
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639884988, $16.99

https://www.amazon.com/Melody-Exile-S-T-Brant/dp/163988498X

Melody in Exile's special brand of poetry pays tribute to the intersection between literary and spiritual reflection, and is recommended reading for audiences who look for such rare entwinings of two often-disparate subjects.

It opens with "The Soul," a consideration of darkness, color, the "cosmology of you" and "...the new melody made when a song/lands in the sea." The perspectives presented in this poetry gathering aren't just those of the author, but represent a chorus of insights, from Adam and Eve to timeless love connections that traverse time, space, and nature: "Her windy song collides my heart. It dusts; it seeds the universe:/Adam up from dust."

Each poem represents a microcosm of world perspectives, visions of love and life, and the presence of literary and spiritual revelations that wind through experiences and observations: "Adam, Eve, light's embassies, and I/Talked our visions, our limits. In Eden I was happy but for the/loose bee in my heart."

With these selected quotes, which but graze the surface of the metaphysical and metaphorical prowess demonstrated by S.T. Brant, readers gain a sense of the depth of examination promised and delivered in free verse explorations.

Libraries seeking contemporary poetry collections that sing and ring with thought-provoking links between history, spiritual, and emotional forays into the world will find Melody in Exile's lyrical, philosophical examinations a compelling representation of modern contemporary free verse poetry at its strongest.

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