Knopf, 2020
I
can’t think of a more fitting first poem than “Between the Griffon and Met Life”
for Vincent Katz’s new book, BROADWAY FOR PAUL (Knopf, New York, 2020).
It is an extremely welcoming poem, not just in its narrative that begins
I am totally
enamored of every person passing in this
unseasonably warm mid-March evening
near
39th and Park
but
in the lightness of its tone. I cite “light” here as a pun as Katz also articulates
what will burnish our view of the
persona: “The light is such that I can see everyone and can imagine what they
are imagining for the night ahead, what dreams, what fulfilled fantasies of
togetherness”. The all of this poem is just a great set-up for what comes next.
What
comes next, as noted by the title, is New York’s Broadway—life on its streets,
subways, offices and those who populate such scenes. But what the reader ends
up seeing is not just New York but City writ large. References may be to
Manhattan but the observation and wisdom cuts across geography, e.g. this
ending to “7 A.M. Poem”—
The people
arriving on trains are not New Yorkers, but
They too are
filled with desires, plans, wrapped in winter coats
As the people
crashed out on stairs or in abandoned buildings
People in high
boardrooms creating situations affecting those with nothing
or,
from”Morning, Or Evening?”
“Important to be in
one’s own head, not subject to advertising or even others’ art”.
I
was heartened to read the poem “Flows” because that’s part of this collection’s
achievement: an organic turn from one city scene to another, whether on a
concrete sidewalk or in the mind. Such an ease—this flow—widens the persona’s
position in New York to include the rest of the world, as in
RIVER
This is where I’m
a poet:
Right here, at the
edge of the river, in the cold
Those colors at
the end of day, in winter
I’m able to have
my own views out here
And I can. Hear
the water lapping
I love this curved
building lit up at night
Like somewhere in
Germany
“RIVER”
certainly works well as an ars poetica poem, that is, that perhaps the poet
needs to be at the “edge” of something that is moving elsewhere—that such a
positioning is required for ensuring one’s ability to become exposed, to before
taking in, much of what composes the very large universe. Here, the poet
doesn’t simply views but takes in—an effect manifested in how Katz’s
poems are generously populated with details—from “Café With Bryan Ferry”:
The breeze is
causing the canopy edge to flutter,
In turn causing a
shadow to enter and retreat
On the edge of the
café table
Its pulsing is
mesmerizing and also calming
It helps put him
in a general trance of midday
In
addition, the collection’s flow—tone—is not interrupted but only deepened by
the allowance of what can be jarring, e.g. “Ivanka Skirting” that begins
These are poems of
mind control I’m going to get inside
Their minds and change their policies
I am starting with
Ivanka before I can move on to Jared
Ivanka is wearing
a wrap skirt as she smiles to the children in
The classroom, Jared smirks walking
away
Nothing is easy,
no blemishes in this park, green grass
Beginning to come, March trees in bud,
lofty edifices
Preside
Castle rocks
reflect in pond, organic base of massive pain
This city where
the rich feast on others’ innards
Expertly-crafted
imagery, the specifics of details without getting bogged down in them, the
light, the palpable consciousness of a persona which nonetheless does not deter
the reader from a personal inhabitation of the poems—Katz’s poetic skills make
this collection not only one to read but one that activates the mind’s eyes; I
agree with the jacket description of Katz’s poetry as “a way of seeing that can
change hearts and minds.” He achieves such with so much grace that to read many
of the poems is to feel the world more alit with a ceaseless desire for
connections.
Eileen R. Tabios has released over
60 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from
publishers in ten countries and cyberspace. Her 2020 books include a short
story collection, PAGPAG: The Dictator’s Aftermath in the Diaspora; a
poetry collection, The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku: Selected Tercets
1996-2019; and her third bilingual edition (English/Thai), INCULPATORY
EVIDENCE: Covid-19 Poems. She invented the hay(na)ku, a 21st century
diasporic poetic form, and the MDR Poetry Generator, which can create poems
totaling theoretical infinity. Translated into 11 languages, she also has
edited, co-edited or conceptualized 15 anthologies of poetry, fiction and
essays. More information is available at http://eileenrtabios.com