âWhat does this mean?â my wife said, holding up a yellow sticky note that was tacked to the cover of my copy of âWelcome Homesickâ by Dave Morrison. The handwriting said simply, âI know, I know âŚâ
I laughed and said, âI think he means this is his second collection of new poems in six months, and he knows it seems like a bit much.â
The previous collection, âPsalms,â came out last summer, following an uncharacteristic hiatus of two years after the publication of âCancer Poems,â which vividly depicted the poetâs battle with throat cancer. The poems in âPsalmsâ were âsmall exclamationsâ of joy and gratitude after that crisis, he said last summer.
Well, joy and gratitude have characterized all of Morrisonâs poetry, really, along with other practically palpable feelings such as bewilderment, awe, frustration, exhilaration, dejection, bemusement and authentic old-fashioned kidlike wonder, to name a few. The same ingredients are not missing from âWelcome Homesick,â so this collection too is well worth looking into on a rainy Saturday or even a sunny Monday. But publishing it straight on the heels of âPsalmsâ is not a bit much at all, and Iâll tell you why.
These poems, to my mind, reveal an advance in the poetâs technical mastery of the language. His poetry â with roots in rock and roll songwriting â has always had unusual rhythmic coherence despite its chatty, man-on-the-street straightforwardness of diction. But the lines throughout âWelcome Homesickâ are harder-edged and more precise than ever, both in rhythm and syntax. The first stanza of âFreezing Rainâ:
Freezing rain, then just plain rain
bare branches through the skylight bend
and smear, the air is dank and still
jazz drummer plays with small light sticks
Iâm ready for a glass of red and
a line that could become a poem.
Characteristic Morrison exhilaration is present all through the assonances and beats of these lines, not to mention the deftly assembled paratactic imagery of rain, drumming and wine. Beautiful, and this beauty goes on throughout the book. E.g., âWeightlessâ:
She discovered, when he got
sick, that she could move
through the house weightless,
like a ninja, or a burglar, she
could open and close doors
silently, subsist on fewer
meals, reduce her imprint
to almost nothing. They were
both, in their own ways,
practicing to be ghosts.
He was right to let us in on this enhanced music immediately.
In a couple of years, it will be time for the governor to appoint the sixth Maine state poet laureate, and I really think this is the kind of constructive, upbeat energy weâll be wanting. So Iâm pre-nominating Dave Morrison now.
Morrison lives in Camden. His poems have appeared in 12 previous collections, in many small magazines and anthologies and on the âWriterâs Almanacâ radio show. Heâs appeared on the âWriters Forumâ program of WERU radio in Blue Hill, hosted the âHave Poems, Will Travelâ show on WRFR-FM in Rockland and given performances of his poetry widely in Maine, including at the Camden Opera House where he keeps a day job. âWelcome Homesickâ is available from midcoast book shops and online book sellers.
Off Radar takes note of poetry and books with Maine connections the first Thursday of each month. Contact Dana Wilde at universe@dwildepress.net.
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