| Author: | Fowlpox Press | ISBN: | 9780987956118 |
| Publisher: | Fowlpox Press | Publication: | March 5, 2012 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition | Language: | English |
| Author: | Fowlpox Press |
| ISBN: | 9780987956118 |
| Publisher: | Fowlpox Press |
| Publication: | March 5, 2012 |
| Imprint: | Smashwords Edition |
| Language: | English |
Nathaniel S. Round’s newest chapbook, “Clefts of the Rock“, morphs back and forth from the banal to the sordid in such a liquid manner as to celebrate both Jerry Mathers suburban ordinariness and Bukowski’s silken, boozy vision. A stanza from “In Rain on Rain” demonstrates this:
It’s all very depressing
You grab a Valium and a glass of wine
And advance to the end
E-man is standing over a dead Penny
Who died in that scene you hate
Where she polishes off that out-of-date cheese dip
Mr. Round’s story/statements are secret languages (You are a Holy See sea sick host) that in their brevity expand into volumes of thought and history. Although Round’s free verse poems do not flaunt internal rhyme, there is a perfect rhythm to them that poeticizes a commonplace sentence. If I have to criticize anything in this collection it would be his poem, Arise, because of the end rhymes. However, he still manages to stay away from that sing-song quality I find distracting, so it may be less of a criticism than a personal preference. Mr. Rounds also gives us a sophisticated, dry humor in several of the poems, most noted in his “Judas with Honours” which caught me laughing loudly out loud.
Nathaniel S. Round’s dualities and juxtapositions are brilliant. The last line of his final poem simply resonates with imaginative possibility: One eye envying the dead. It is a joy to read poems that are not contrived, not regurgitated, derivative attempts at wordsmithing, but poems that make you feel as well as think. Someone, like Nathaniel S. Rounds, who shows you without sentimentality, without melodrama and without judgment what you already know but have not taken the time to examine fully… well, now…. that is a poet.
--Alice Shapiro, Poet Laureate of Douglasville, Georgia
Nathaniel S. Round’s newest chapbook, “Clefts of the Rock“, morphs back and forth from the banal to the sordid in such a liquid manner as to celebrate both Jerry Mathers suburban ordinariness and Bukowski’s silken, boozy vision. A stanza from “In Rain on Rain” demonstrates this:
It’s all very depressing
You grab a Valium and a glass of wine
And advance to the end
E-man is standing over a dead Penny
Who died in that scene you hate
Where she polishes off that out-of-date cheese dip
Mr. Round’s story/statements are secret languages (You are a Holy See sea sick host) that in their brevity expand into volumes of thought and history. Although Round’s free verse poems do not flaunt internal rhyme, there is a perfect rhythm to them that poeticizes a commonplace sentence. If I have to criticize anything in this collection it would be his poem, Arise, because of the end rhymes. However, he still manages to stay away from that sing-song quality I find distracting, so it may be less of a criticism than a personal preference. Mr. Rounds also gives us a sophisticated, dry humor in several of the poems, most noted in his “Judas with Honours” which caught me laughing loudly out loud.
Nathaniel S. Round’s dualities and juxtapositions are brilliant. The last line of his final poem simply resonates with imaginative possibility: One eye envying the dead. It is a joy to read poems that are not contrived, not regurgitated, derivative attempts at wordsmithing, but poems that make you feel as well as think. Someone, like Nathaniel S. Rounds, who shows you without sentimentality, without melodrama and without judgment what you already know but have not taken the time to examine fully… well, now…. that is a poet.
--Alice Shapiro, Poet Laureate of Douglasville, Georgia
