Page 7 - flying stones
P. 7
In these poems many children are at play, some not
ready to come inside just yet, and worse, some
irretrievably lost amongst soberly chilling, unteachable
times. Knot theory may become a binding drama, or at
least a hall of mirrors for “a stranger to whoever-he-was
who wore my face” (“when I was young like you”).
Yes, there is more in these poems than a play of mirrors.
The wider scenario is wild being that demands a
serious, grown-up poet who, even though he does not
much want to be, must be so. Intensity happens.
Witness “take me as I am” and also, fully a-musedly,
“she is your lover.” And listen for these lines too: “some
will not understand/why you love her so. some/will
ask who she is." Such may constitute a concise
statement of Peter’s poetics.
Finally, among the joys of befriending a righteous poet
is finding distinct pleasures, sometimes to excess, in
hearing and metabolizing a particular poem that strikes
a chord beyond striving, a true gift. I can say of “the
monarch’s song to Zhenya” that it is among the
delighting-est of all poems I know in this life. I’ve heard
Peter speak it in several states and across the seas.
Somehow, I can never hear it enough.
John Dotson
Carmel, California
May 15, 2013
