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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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Wed, 15 Nov 2006
Book of the Day: Zero Degrees at First Light by Christine Potter
Christine Potter's Zero Degrees at First Light is a collection of surface simplicity, but Potter's skill with form--whether carefully sculpted free verse or more traditional measures--soon unfolds deeper insight.
This graceful sonnet is one example:
On the Closing
of Ichi-Riki, Nyack, NY (Where I Have Eaten For Twenty Years)
When dining on sashimi seemed as dear
as ninety-minute phone calls, out of state,
to boyfriends I should never have gone near,
I came here anyway and cleaned my plate
of everything except that spikey herb,
the garnish, near the ginger and wasabi--
but since I'm older, I am undisturbed
by doomed relationships, my former hobby.
Now I can order toro without guilt
and easily afford to pay the bill,
this restaurant's closing and my youth is spilt.
Epiphany at last; I feel its chill:
time's passage is the most expensive dish,
a truth in life and love--and in raw fish.
Moving through its sharply rendered rhymes, the final couplet snaps shut. That satisfying click of insight is something Potter does very well, and consistently, throughout this moving collection.