The Book Corner: Ahsahta Press Poetry 2 (War, Violence And Nixon)

1. GALLOWGLASS (Susan Tichy)

I'm not a poet. I don't write poetry and I haven't formally studied either the art of poetry of that of poetry criticism. Plus, I read so many different kinds of things that no one of them, including poetry, forms the single major part of my reading. So it's a little challenging to write reviews that try to inform readers about why I think poetry is important, and in particular why I think the poetry of Ashahta Press (headed by poet Janet Holmes) is among the MOST important today, in terms of both what it says and the way it says it. In particular, the three books here form an accidental kind of trilogy about how we live today.

"Gallowglass" by Susan Tichy is in the time honored tradition of poetry inspired by the most senseless act of which human beings are capable... war. Not just commentary on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Vietnam, Korea, World War II and more. What does it cost a soldier to go from normal civilian life to the violence of war and back? And most especially, what is the cost for the innocent civilian living in the war zone, even assuming they physically survive the war itself? Tichy addresses these subjects in a way that makes it impossible for the reader to sit back, relaxed, and read about what's happening to someone else. You ARE living in a war zone when you read her poems.

But Tichy isn't writing editorials, either... the language and metaphors available to the poet are put to use in creating works of a strange, savage beauty. If you're wondering how works of any kind of beauty can unflinchingly comment on the worst part of human nature in a truly poetic manner, you won't wonder any more after reading this book. And Tichy does all of this in a series of poems in what would seem to be a limiting format: mostly couplets or even single lines. But then, poetry doesn't get any more "limited" than haiku, and look at all the great masters of that field. Sometimes self-imposed limitations can produce the best work. Susan Tichy is a strong argument for that case.

2. "100 NOTES ON VIOLENCE" (Julie Carr).

From the ultimate outward expression of violence, we go to a work that expolores violence on a somewhat smaller scale... the personal, even the interior. War is likely an acceptable outlet to so many because we have become so accustomed and/or desensitized to violence in our everyday lives. Julie Carr takes a look at a number of these ways, mixes her observations in with some commentary on popular culture, and comes up with a thoughtful meditation on what we've become as a society and how that may have happened.

Obviously, we see violence on the news every night... robbery, murder, gang activity... and Carr certainly has much to say on these subjects. How is it that we come to see these reports and are able to shrug them off? But, intriguingly, she also writes a great deal about interior, emotional violence: cruelty to others that doesn't necessarily involve physical harm. That's violence that does just as much damage and may well lead to its outward expression. Carr writes about this in a series of poems with widely diverse styles, sometimes traditional, sometimes experimental... and in fact, the more experimental the poems get, the more concrete the impact of their message about violence often is. Check out "Mother and Daughter 2", in particular, for an idea about how the way words are arranged on a page can add to the power of the work.

Then there's that popular culture connection I mentioned. Bet you think that consists entirely of thoughts about violence in movies and TV, etc. Well, sometimes. But Carr wil surprise you, so don't bring too many preconceived expectations.  You might THINK you know how violence manifests itself in contemporary society, but once you take a look at "100 Notes On Violence", you'll find out that Julie Carr has a lot to teach you on that subject.

3. "DICK OF THE DEAD" (Rachel Loden).

Not quite a week ago, I wrote a review of a book of poems for Barack Obama's first 100 days, and commented on how the poems that dealt most directly with Obama and his policies were the least effective. In "Dick Of The Dead" Rachel Loden addresses the presidency and the legacy of Richard Nixon, often bringing him and his associates directly into the peoms (with titles like "Milhous As King Of The Ghosts", "The Nixon Tapes" and "A Quaker Meeting At Yorba Linda") and it all works perfectly. I can't exactly explain why, but it does.

It could be a certain off-kilter sense of humor, which is present in the poems even when the subjects are at their most serious. (For instance, there's the poem about "Seinfeld" character George Costanza. Huh? George Costanza in a carefully thought meditation on Nixon and politics? Yes, exactly.)  It might be the way that Loden delves so extensively into not just what Nixon did, but what the country has since become as a result, and even... difficult as it may be to accept... how much we have in common with Nixon and what drove him. You even get as much insight into what kind of person Nixon was, and why... granted, filtered through a unique poetic sensibility and language... as you might in a straight Nixon biography. Yet another example of things poetry can accomplish that you might never have considered before.

And I'd probably have to agree with the quote from poet Ron Silliman about how Loden verges on the Shakespearean with some of these poems... Nixon as a kind of fallen, tragic Shakespearean character like Lear or (my own observation) Richard the 3rd. "Dick Of The Dead" asks us to look at Richard Nixon and the nation that has developed as a result of his rule from a multitude of perspectives, both direct and not so direct. The reader comes away from this book with a number of thoughts on the subject that are challenging, to say the least. But the most challenging is possibly the one that very nearly echoes those famous words of the comic-strip possum Pogo: We have met Richard Nixon, and he is us.