Customer Reviews

AN Almost Pure Empty Walking (National Poetry Series)

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The author's careful use of words paints pictures with very fine strokes indeed. The background, alternating between his Greek homeland and the U.S. is important in making the distinctions in color between the old and new worlds. One can feel the sense of differences he inherited from his mother, and he fills out what she means, walking the ways through his village in Greece, talking to a lonely and forgotten old lady in Connecticut, listening to the peace and contrasting the chaos with the beauty and warmth of the human soul. This is a wonderful book of poetry, one without an agenda, at least one that was overwhelming. For that we must be truly grateful. The distillation of the words amplifies the things which we pass by without thinking daily and provides us a source of atonement, or, at very least, catharsis, should we choose to take part in the communion.

The book is truly wonderful. It is written in an honest, heartwarming style that evokes lazy summer afternoons long ago, when the world was fresh and innocent. Whether he is reminiscing about his pizza delivery route, or his mother's sufferings as an immigrant or cancer patient, the poet remains faithful in opening up a world we can all identify with: pain, loss, wonder, the everyday sacredness of the ordinary. I highly recommend it.

If you like poetry that involves precisely no imagination, emotionless babble that doesn't say anything, this is probably the book for you. But let me fill you in on a secret: there's plenty of stuff like this on the Internet, just Google "poetry" and click on whatever you like. Reflections on things seen in windows, poor attempts to describe something that didn't happen to the author-- it's all there.