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Public Poetry, Kevin Walzer's meditations on poetry, publishing, business, and other creative pursuits
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Kevin Walzer, a poet, poetry publisher, husband, and father.
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Mon, 06 Nov 2006
Book of the Day: The Geometry of Loneliness by Lee Passarella
Lee Passarella's The Geometry of Loneliness is a book of stately, elegant lyrics of frequently minor key; their beauty is melancholoy, even mournful at times. In reading the book, I was moved again and again by Passarella's dignified skill. Consider "Equinox":
Equinox
Wind shakes the colors
loose, patterns uncomplicated
from the folds as the quilt
is spread: the soft architecture
of new poplar leaves, scalloped
and gothic; the dogwoods'
pilled flowers, knotted
wool; the labial wings
on the maples fingered coral,
red. But the pin oaks grab
their browns around them,
unwashed. Lent a word
small and blunt as any ritual.
You preach the creed
a thousand thousand times,
and always the same,
only rearranging the dust,
covering dead follicles
with a lie of green:
henna and celadon.
Somewhere the snow stays
brittle, a wafer;
the grass drinks from it,
learning the hard lessons.
This is indeed a poetry of "hard lessons," but it is elevated by Passarella's nearly classical rhetorical tone. The Geometry of Loneliness is a haunting, memorable book.