Loch Raven Review - 2006 Winter

Jim Doss is co-editor of Loch Raven Review. He was born and raised in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He has lived most of his life in the mid-Atlantic region with the exception of several years in Arizona. His work has appeared in Poetry East, Words-Myth, Poems Niedergasse, and other publications. A graduate of the University of Virginia, he earns his living as a software engineer, and lives with his wife and three children in Maryland.

S. Thomas Summers is a teacher of English at Wayne Hills High School in Wayne, NJ. His poems have appeared in several print and electronic journals: MiPo, Rock and Sling, The Pedestal Magazine, The Iconoclast, etc. His chapbook "Death settled well" won Shadow Ink Publications 7th Bi-annual Chapbook Competition and was published in September 2006. "Death settled well" can be purchased at www.shadowpoetry.com or by contacting the author directly at [email protected]. Summers's blog address is www.poetry-is.blogspot.com.

Winter 2006 Table of Contents - Vol. II, No. 4
Poetry Essays Fiction Book Notes & Reviews

Jim Doss S. Thomas Summers, Death settled well, Shadows Ink Publications, ISBN 978-1-932447-76-7, 37 pages, 2006, $6.95. In his first chapbook, Death settled well, S. Thomas Summers demonstrates his belief in tight, concise writing, the clear image, and ample use of metaphor. Hardly a word in the volume seems superfluous or out of place. This is not poetry based, as Rimbaud puts it, on a "systematic derangement of the senses," or even the "disordered and chaotic confusion of the Bible" of Miguel Hernandez. It is poetry that is humble and unassuming, yet accomplished, as if it were written in secret by the next door neighbor out of a quiet, well-ordered life. The subject matter of these poems ranges from naps to misplaced buzzards, baseball games to frogs caught by the lawnmower blades, pastoral scenes to deli dumpsters, fishing to searching for a lost dog, eating pears to drinking wine. Scenes abound that the typical literate suburbanite can relate to, and as the title and cover picture indicate death and ghosts appear as an undercurrent: ...A volume of Poe lies open on my desk near a portly candle excavated by the flame that last night led me through Montresor's catacomb's -- so musty and cold. Even the bacon sizzling in the kitchen can't silence the ghosts knocking on the pipes as you draw your bath. And in the title poem, which I quote in its entirety: Death settled well on the possum sprawled near the road's edge. Its mouth -- gaped. Lips smeared red -- clown lips. The heft of death bloats its belly -- fat clown. I prop it against a tree like a teddy bear against a bed pillow. Lungs hiss, empty of air. Eyes coddle sights only the dead can see: night tainting day -- ink in a pool of clear water -- my own ghost leaning against a stop sign, patiently waiting for breath to expire. The poems that are most effective work on multiple levels, like the passages quoted above: past and future commingle, memory and the present, life and death. They transcend mere description, and the preciseness of Summers' language distills the poetic effect to the point every word has a purpose, enhances the overall impact. When Summers takes risks, lets his imagination run, while maintaining control over the language, he can produce some striking images such as in the poem Eight-Years-Old, which recounts a memorable visit to Yankee stadium with his father, and ends with the lines: I want to crawl into daddy's lap, taste the pretzel soaking in his beer, close the wrinkles growing dark under his eyes. Or when writing of pears: ... I'll bite one, leave it on the counter, a dented bell, so you'll think of me. Or in the longest poem in the book, Intimations on Mortality by Linus van Pelt: I'll take Snoopy's body, wrap it in my blanket, lay the still bundle in the earth. Thumb sucking will never soothe that ache. The few weak poems in the book fail to rise beyond mere description, and are fenced in by the strict discipline of language. The future challenge in Summers' writing is to consistently transcend such limitations, take risks, and like in his best poems offer his readers insight, wisdom, and mystery. Overall, Death settled well is a book worth reading, and Summers is a serious, sincere, and talented artist who is able to turn the events of his day-to-day life into poetry. © Jim Doss

Poetry Essays Fiction Book Notes & Reviews