Customer Reviews

Smoke and Thunder

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As much as anyone I know of in the small press, Jim Chandler has paid his dues. Chandler has operated as a kind of southern Bukowski since the early 70's when his work began to appear in magazines and literary journals around the country.

SMOKE AND THUNDER delivers a large sample of his powerful,often raw, yet more often elegant poetry. Chandler moves easily from narrative to elegy to the occasional rant, bearing the reader along with a lyrical sense that is not bound by structure or literary convention.

Chandler best describes himself as a survivalist in his aptly titled "hillbilly rasputin:"
i know now
i go on
i will go on
i cannot
be stopped
by death
the hole
or anything

i am eternal
fire

clutching what
i know
holding it

to heart.

I began to follow Chandler's poetry after reading it in "The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry," in which he outshined many of the "luminaries" and name poets featured in that book. His words ring with honesty hard to find in a world filled with people dedicated to filling pages with pretty word pictures of little significance. I have no way of knowing, but I would suspect that he had lived many of these poems first hand. All once can say to that idea is, an interesting and varied life makes for interesting poetry. And this book is that.

Smoke & Thunder is a collection of poetry with vivid, startling imagery and a grounded sense of music one rarely sees in modern verse. Chandler can make you laugh and cry and nod your head in grim recognition all in the space of one stanza. Too few poets have managed to write family poetry without falling in the Hallmark trap - but Chandler, in his poems about his father and grandfather and his grandmother - manages to capture their humanity and deliver them from the fate of plastic saints, handing us the bare bones of loss and the incumbent wisdom of those who have crossed his path. His love poetry is equally dexterous. Deceptively simple lines like the opening of the poem "Churn" serve as the earmarks of his candor and genuine common sense: "what i need is/ a shady spot/ over yonder with/ the woman/ i love." You can't help but be charmed. If you buy one poetry book this year, make it Smoke & Thunder. There is a delightful surprise on every page.

I find Chandler's book to contain excellent poetic work throughout, if I am not familiar with many of the settings and situations he describes in the south of America. I did not detect angst in this volume, but the kind of pain humans must sometimes feel to stay human beings. To give one star is simple hatred of the man for reasons known to only giver not true criticism. It is the colour of true poetry shining in words!

You can very frequently tell by what someone writes about a book whether or not they have really read it, or if they are expressing sour grapes in one form or another. There is no angst in this volume, just some of the pain of regular old everyday life. This is a fantastic book by a good poet, albeit he's the kind of guy who very frequently angers the thin-skinned and cry-babies. If you only buy one book of poetry this year, make it this one. . .you won't be sorry, contrary to some rejectee hoping to "get even."

With a startling degree of honesty, Jim Chandler has put his life in the forefront of the literary world for over 30 years: this compilation is a must-read. What's it like to read Smoke and Thunder? You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder. Not fleeting, pretty-poetry, Chandler's poems stick to your ribs and find a place within your heart. Unbelieveable works of art formed from his everyday life--amazing that anyone could accomplish that. Whose life is worthy of such a read? His is. And every bit of it thought provoking, moving, mysterious and commonplace, sometimes all at once. He captures the magic, the adventure, and sometimes what seems to be the futility of life and love, in a nonapologetic way devoid of martyrdom or angst. Such talent. Such wisdom. You'll be glad you bought this book.