Customer Reviews

The Several World

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There is no way to do justice to this book in prose. Praising the beauty and craft of this work would require the kind of restrained grace and artfullness that Will Toedtman brings to bear on his subjects. There is great music in these pages. I hesitate to call this a work of formalism, because that suggests Toedtman is following forms and not his ear, which seems to be the guiding force throughout this book. If you seek those readerly shivers, read this book, and then read it again. If you seek to be made humble by the beauty of our languge, buy this book and never give it back.

Will Toedtman, The Several World (Kent State University Press, 2003)

I have quickly realized over the past few months that much of what is exciting in academic poetry today can be found within the covers of the slim volumes, four per year, published in Kent State University's Wick Poetry Chapbook series. The most recent one I've happened upon is Will Toedtman's The Several World, and there is very much to like about this up-and-coming author. Toedtman, according to the rather thin bio, is a student at the University of Cincinnati. This is not information we'd have really needed, short the location; Toedtman's work is obviously "student" work, both in its tendency to roam the full map of both strict and free verse, and in its choice of subject matter, which has the close, slightly unsightly odor of the confessional about it. But the subject matter does nothing to inhibit the power of Toedtman's language, which is considerable even in one so young:

"Instead, he noticed things: a trash can jostled
by a raccoon; so many flecks of glass
(the detritus of other nights)
glinting in the tarmac of the street;
the Washington Memorial lit up
tooth-white within a wrought-iron fence, the general's
statue at the top, attending to
what might be British flags outside the harbor
or the flags of mercenaries-- who could tell
at such a distance, their colors being equal?"
(--"An Idea of Order on Charles Street")

One can see the student-ness in the allusion to Stevens, even. But so, there is an undeniable appeal to Toedtman's pieces that keeps the reader perusing, and there is an obvious direction to the man's work. Will Toedtman is going places, have no doubt about it. I can speak from personal experience when I say that in ten years, Mr. Toedtman may be embarrassed he published any of the early work, but I can also speak from experience when I say that, as a reader, I'm quite grateful he did. A an added bonus, for a Wick book, this one's positively massive, clocking in at thirty pages, so you get more Toedtman goodness than one would expect from a Wick book. And the extra pages are well-deserved. Read this. *** ½