Customer Reviews

Dynamite on a China Plate

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Jay Leeming's poems in "Dynamite on a China Plate" entice the reader's mind to view the events in his life as if for the first time. The poet's play with language enhances the ordinary into becoming extraordinary. The beauty of each poem is captured and then let go with a surprise the reader will remember long after he has put the book down. On top of this, Leeming's poetry carries the rhythmic beat of an accomplished musician. This collection is a "must-read"--even if you don't like poetry.
Thelma Turner

Yes, Jay Leeming's work is like an agate - you've never seen one quite like his before. His poems and angles on the world make you think, "Why didn't I think of that, why didn't anyone think of that?" Like all brilliant poets, he shows us what we've always known, but never thought of. This the most fun I've had between the covers of a book in a long time.

Bill Robichaud

A wonderful collection of poems. Jay Leeming sees ordinary things in extraordinary ways and makes connections that startle and inspire. His poetry is accessible; you don't need to be an English major to appreciate it, but his craft provides much for an English major to admire.

It's fun to seen how far a poet can walk away from his inheritance of mellinia worth of formal, rhyme and meter poetry and still be in perfect command of the poetry of linguistic compression. Many of these page or less beauties seem as if pencil never touched paper before the entire piece, word for word, was fully formed in the poet's head. From there, it seems the revision process weighed heavily on oral recitation to perfect the music of the pieces (from "At Golgotha": Then the first breath came. I remembered / the wooden boat shaking over the rapids / of the river's mouth, bumping / at the sea's gate. I remembered / running my hands over a newly / sanded board... Then the second breath" [ellipsis his]). Spice it all with a gift for aphorism (from "The Barber": The barber is someone who creates / by taking away, like a writer / who only owns an eraser.), surrealism (from "Dream of Russia": ... She bakes bread / in a cruel gymnasium; bullets for brothers / as if they were crows. Now / we must eat the black spoons.), and a sense of humor ("Man Writes Poem"). The first time I saw the 8 line "Man in a Lighted Room at Sundown," I read it three times--not because of its obscurity but because I couldn't believe someone had written something so complex so beautifully. And this is the first time in a long time that I've read a series poem (with numbered parts) and found each of the parts holds up its part of the bargain (both "The Comedian's Ten Songs" and "Boxes and Oceans"). In the Acknowledgements, it is all explained--to me anyway--with a reference to the Minnesota Sufi group. This is, at last, non-linear poetry that demands we shed our expectations and surrender to who and where we are in the ambient light of verse. All that aside, how could you not pick up a book with a title like Dynamite on a China Plate, take it out for a spin?

No image is a better metaphor for Jay Leeming's poems than the title of his collection: "Dynamite on a China Plate"--the dynamite promising an explosion and the delicate, elegant China plate quivering with tension. In this book of poetry readers will find humor, unexpected twists and turns, raw wit and the juxtaposition of nonsensical ideas with realistic images, all served on a delightful, dynamic plate of lilting verse.

Leeming's verse, full of rhythm and written in a dynamic voice, possesses unique musical qualities. In "Man Writes Poem," readers listen in as a narrator who speaks like a sportscaster and a second reporter describe what is happening while a man writes a poem. The situation itself is tremendously funny because a person writing a poem is likely one of the least exciting things in the world to watch and report, the exact opposite of an exciting sports game that involves much grabbing and passing of balls, scoring of points, etc. Yet Leeming carries it off and manages to make poem-writing exciting, or at least entertaining for spectators:

This just in a man has begun writing a poem
in a small room in Brooklyn. His curtains
are apparently blowing in the breeze. We go now
to our man Harry on the scene, what's
the story down there Harry? (Leeming)

This witty collection of poems is bound to entertain and surprise readers at every turn of the page. Highly recommended.