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Elementary Poems

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_Elementary_ By C.E. Chaffin, Mellen Press -- 1997

In poetry, language as art is the defined space of emotive energies used to produce a sensation or intuitive stance in the reader. In defining good poetry, one should expect the standard fare of imagery and thematic value. But in defining great poetry, one need only read CE Chaffin's first collection, _Elementary_.

What poetry does is to mix emotion and object through the dialectic of imagery, a suggested pattern of awareness of personal knowledge. Technically, Chaffin organizes his poetic impulses into a pattern along the twin lines of denotation and connotation. We find a poet re-defining perception and emotion to the highest rung when we read:

"Down, down, down, we all go down / into the deep, deep black trenches / where fish manufacture light, / where inhuman pressure / requires inhuman pressure to survive, / where colors have no meaning, sounds are louder / for stillness and the current torpid, / where water is always four degrees centigrade / and cold, cold, cold, but never frozen."

("Near the Bottom")

As seen above, in addition to utilizing devices to strengthen the images, Chaffin takes the reader further by introducing opposites in contrast to the emotion. This provides the reader with an intuitive glimpse into the poet's sometimes divided mind and heart and broadens the relationship of the work to its theme. Again, witness this dichotomy of emotion:

"No air conditioner can slice this pasta, / this thick lasagna of atmosphere; / the moon cannot cool, the sun cannot dry / this humid revolution of stars, / for night is worse for no relief-- / warm as a wet pillow / when fever strikes."

("An End to Summer")

In addition to the contrasts, "the moon cannot cool, the sun cannot dry," we see the progressive organization of thought forming a link between disparate images. Rather than compare Chaffin's voice to that of a Cummings or Stevens, one could say he approaches his work in a Dali-esque or Magritte manner-- that of the painter drawing abstract references into unity and completion.

At his best, Chaffin moves his work in time to that of the visionary, seeing connections when none before existed. He has the strength to bring uniformity to modern obscurity through the guiding principles of cognition, awareness and revelation. In the following stanza we get a glimpse of this:

"My plumage in hue resembles / the yellowed ivory of old men's teeth. / My eyes, once keen, now barely locate / what the seagulls disdain. / Wisdom is what remains, but at this age / it lacks the power of will. / It means, I think, to suffer / one's own nature to its end."

("Phoenix")

Overall Chaffin's _Elementary_ is a brilliant collection of striking poems written with imagination at full stretch. In this slim volume we see a man re-defining language in emotional and conceptual brackets beyond the plain implication of words, avoiding obscurity for the most part, in his search for universal symbols of human feeling.

David Hunter Sutherland Managing Editor Recursive Angel New York, 1999

CE Chaffin divides this book into the four elementals: earth, air, fire, water. The title alludes to the simplicity of the language and of the content but this book is rich in lush images and metaphor. Chaffin's poems read like an onion-- every read reveals another fine layer, intricate and layered.

CE Chaffin changes forever stereotypes surrounding typical nature poetry. Dr. Chaffin is able to make us feel deeply the soul of living things from lowly fish as they bite into "the shock of hooks" to something as ordinary as a batch of carrots from the garden..."dumb sacrifices on the kitchen cutting board." Dr. Chaffin records what he sees with skill and an abiding love. ELEMENTARY is a collection which will enrich -unalterably- those who read it.