 The Endless Forms of
the One Thing |
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| 26 Poems From Snail River by James Bertolino It's hard not to like James Bertolino's poetry. "I believe in turnips,"he writes. Who else pays attention to ordinary objects with such funny,tender phrases? But taking Bertolino lightly would be a mistake. Thoughthe poems in this collection are short, and the collection itself is small,Bertolino nevertheless has mastered an elusive subject. "Look for theendless forms of the one thing," he advises. He might be saying, "Ican show you how" with this collection of poems. That's quite a giftif you stop and think about it. To capture his sense of the oneness that lies behind and within the world'sobjects, Bertolino uses a simple but highly effective technique. He revealsrelationships between things that don't seem to go together. A seashorebecomes a garden. An ocean becomes a field. The one thing gets explainedthrough the relationships between its manifestations. What results is highlyoriginal phrasing that is intelligent, precise, and graceful: "sunfloweras cougar's eye," "the electron's bright chirp." What a pleasureto be surprised by these astute combinations! As well as making difficult subject matter seem easy, Bertolino is amaster of the concise. He packs surprising amounts of thought into smallspaces. For example, look at what happens here in eight short lines:
A final note: The chapbook itself is beautiful and a bargain at $8.00.This is the first book publication from Egress Studio Press, and if theyare all as elegant as 26 Poems From Snail River, we can lookforward to additional publications with great anticipation. Elizabeth Myhr
edits the Nature Writing section of Raven online.
She lives with her husband and son in Seattle.
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