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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Firm Hold on the Wheel, March 30, 2008
When I read the first poems of this slim collection of poetry, I shrugged. Nothing new here. The lead poem, "A Night at the Soliloquy," was a cutesy play on word structure as characters in a bar and a writer working through his writer's block. The next few poems were no better: waves playing "like brother and sister," a clock that moves too fast, like a fist holding water, a cat purring at a rainy window, a return home matched against autumn leaves rotting away. Oh, it's been done. Is there anything new here?
And then, suddenly, there was. I kept reading, and was rewarded for my efforts. I don't know why the turn into deeper levels of nuance, and fresher poetic moments took place. Perhaps the poet ordered these chronologically and the first were the oldest? Growth? I cannot say, but first impressions are not always correct, or rather, not always all encompassing. Poet Brian Michael Tracy can... poetize!
It was somewhere around the poem, "Jerome," dedicated to Jerry Garcia, that I felt the turn in quality. I wasn't keen on the awkward "What say you?" repetition at the beginning of each stanza, but the rest of the poem works.
"What say you - we ride to the cliffs above the harbor
To the unmarked trail between days?
There the muse has poured the blue liquid of eternal tones
Into a guitar.
Pick it up.
Bring it to your ear.
Strum it, it is light.
Strum it again, it is night.
Strum it again and the unmarked trail is gone;
So too the horses."
Yeah, I like that, it works, and I can even start to hear a little of Garcia strumming as I read it. I wish the poet wouldn't capitalize each line when it is still part of the same sentence - it ever so slightly disrupts the nice flow - and I would suggest some edits on the use of punctuation, which can be a part of the poem in its own right. But he says something old in a new way, and rhyme, which should be used with utmost caution in contemporary poetry, is used well here. I like "the unmarked trail between days." It's a simple metaphor that comes close to cliche, but just in time, escapes into that crucial a-ha moment in good poetry. Well done!
From thereon out, it is as if Tracy hits his stride. Each following poem is a treat. In "Apollo's Wind,"
"Days were sliced and swallowed
like watermelon at the beach..."
and the next poem, "Physics," has me humming in pleasure. Again, he walks close to the line of cliche, writing about love and time and life being too short... but then, hurrah, escapes that tangle and finds his way, fresh and clear and even profound.
"Midnight Ruby" is a short, simple poem that enchants me. A woman's lipstick is used to very simply illustrate a moment of seduction. Tracy uses a small spot of color to bring to us the immense and lovely world of sensuality, so often lost in today's graphic overtones, dulling the senses.
"The Letters I Still Keep" is a powerful tribute to a fallen soldier. These sorts of poems so often veer into sentimentality, but Tracy gets it right.
"The Cobbler" uses the lost art of repairing shoes in our modern day of discard, but Tracy brings it back to life to explore life - in those who wore these old shoes.
"Visions of Saint George" delves into history and battle, the style matching the tone, and delivers more powerful lines and messages.
Finally, the title poem, "Driving with Dante," concludes the collection, and finishes well, with two men traveling the road to discover something of themselves and all men, looking into the past and into the future.
I look forward to reading more of this poet's work as he continues to develop his art.
~ Zinta Aistars for The Smoking Poet, spring 2008.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry to Match the Season, May 16, 2008
It's spring here along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains - the birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and the snow is beginning to melt. Rejuvenation, love, and adventure permeate the air. All of the pollen has begun to effect my mind - I seem to be distracted, with sputtering thoughts running through my head of places I want to go this summer, adventures I want to have, and books I just can't wait to read. Spring is also the time of poetry. I've noticed that I tend to read books based not only on mood, but also based on season. Poetry is just one of those genres that you want to read in spring. Do you really want to sit down with a 600 page novel when for the first time in several months the sky is extra blue, the grass is turning green, and the outdoors are calling your name? No, large novels are for mid-summer by the pool or cold winter nights by the fire. Spring is the time of poetry - when everything is bursting with life and energy.
So, after finishing up the poetry of Patrick Walker I couldn't bring myself to delve into the novels I have on my nightstand. Rather, I needed another poetry book - something that captured the energy, excitement, and life that was taking place all around me. Luckily, I grabbed Driving with Dante by Brian Michael Tracy. This was just what I was looking for - poems written by a craftsmen of the word. Taking the reader through a series of what Brian calls "water poems", Driving with Dante is a reflective look at childhood innocence, adolescent awakening, and the emergence of adult emotions and experiences. In other words, a poetry book to match the season. Containing such emotionally laden poems as "Because We Are Water" and "Apollo's Wind", I was pleasantly surprised by Brian's work. Here was a poet who has captured not only the mood in the air, but also the essence of what it is to be human.
For example, the poem "Downstream" demonstrates Driving with Dante's applicability to the present ending of winter and the birth of spring.
All eyes are on the river,
like a fire in winter's hearth
they gaze upon it.
Last year the river was low,
so low the ice could not hold it.
The mud would push the frost away
night after night, refusing its advances;
and it stayed right through summer.
But now the sun has pressed the snow
and the river is new again.
The mud has moved downstream.
Children ride their bikes,
robins land in the trees
and we walk
arm-in-arm again with the wind
as it moves us ever closer
to the bay.
What really completes this collection of poems, however, is the accompanying CD that Brian recorded with friends Andy Hill and Renee Safier. Midnight Tea contains seventeen songs with Brian reading his poetry over. Paying tribute to poets such as Wallace Stevens and Larry Levis, as well as the Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia, Midnight Tea demonstrates the depth and charge Brian's poetry has - as well as the musical talents of Andy and Renee.
Spring is a time to break out of the old and embrace the new. Driving with Dante and the accompanying CD Midnight Tea is the perfect way to do just that. Pick up a copy and find a nice spot by a small mountain stream or at a secluded beach. Sit back and let the essence of spring envelope you - both physically and spiritually. This is one of the best times of year, and Brian's poetry along with Andy and Renee's music fit right in. Read a poem, listen to a song, and watch the grass grow and the robins dance. I know my spring has been made a little richer - so can yours.
[...]
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Poetix review of Driving With Dante, April 11, 2008
Tracy's book, Driving with Dante, contains the poems on Midnight Teaand more. The book does allow for a deeper exploration of some of Tracy's themes, especially the nature of time, which is touched on in a number of poems.
Beyond the clock lies freedom
from what we do not say,
though we look to its hands
for more than they offer
more than they can provide.
("The Clock")
It also allows him to indulge his playful side, in poems such as "A Night at the Soliloquy" and "A Little Bit Country."
Driving with Dante also demonstrates that Tracy's poems can stand on their own. The songs may provide some extra context, extra interpretations, for the poems, but they don't prop them up. The poems are strong enough to stand alone, yet expansive enough to interact with the songs.
--G. Murray Thomas/Poetix
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