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Thin Kimono

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However, I'm not yet sure what it's a metaphor for. The good news is that it doesn't matter. Michael Earl Craig's poetry is full of startling images--a man covered in bluebirds, a golden grasshopper resting beside a sleeping infant--but the author insists that he is not practicing surrealism. "To those people who are always talking about "surrealism"/ can I suggest opening your f-ing eyes?" the author asks us. While the world of Craig's poems is filled with absurd situations and details, the point is that this world is our world, and that we need only to open our eyes to access its strange beauty. In this way, experiences as potentially mundane as visiting an acupuncturist's office or waking up in the middle of the night take on a mysterious, haunting quality that cannot be tamed by rational thought. In the poem "The Plane" the speaker, who is traveling in coach, tells us that the plane's wing "looks like a stage prop,/ like a pretend wing, like a child's idea/ of a wing." Such a realization is potentially both funny and scary, since one's life depends on the soundness of that wing. Some poems begin with a strange "establishing shot": "The nitwit danced with the congresswoman/ at the spring picnic." And sometimes Craig gambols playfully through the linguistic toolshed until he discovers a corridor leading him into resonance and meaning. Yet there are poems in the collection that forgo Craig's signature ironic surface. The poem entitled "He Quickly Told His Life Story" introduces us to a man who, while cross-country skiing in the backcountry, falls, is injured, and struggles to survive while hallucinating that he is being helped by a wife who may be purely imaginary. While the speaker may see things that "are not there", there is nothing remotely unrealistic or "surrealistic" about this poem--it is powerful and haunting because of how real it is. That said, the book is generally as playful as its title. It is also very consistent in its quality. Wave Books has done an excellent job presenting these poems with an elegant simplicity that mirrors some of the author's best lines.

I think Christopher Murray's lost me. 'We'd found the groom in the sandbox without his cummerbund.' Metaphor? hardly. Lemon ice cream (lots of it), socks, spatulas, prayer, the box of Twinkies (two left) - in fact food of all kinds, not to mention the rhapsode in the Porta-John and Wiffle bats; these are VERY concrete poems!!!

Craig has two modes, the first person poems (where the 'I' is very present) and his riveting line in narrative verse (frequently left in limbo); sometimes he can combine the two, as in It - so poignant, that! He has obviously read widely in the New York School (well, I would assume...) and he is already up there with the best of them. Did I mention funny? Diana is a show-stopper, besides demonstrating that that pesky kimono is anything but a metaphor. But perhaps if I had to find one word to categorise these poems it would be tender. Quizzical, but tender - like the sainted Joe Brainard himself (who didn't do metaphor). A Position to Witness? - but donkeys are too easy; Another Banner is both funny AND tender - and about himself yet!

But I'm not from your shores - what was the allegorical significance of Swisher Sweet again?

This guy is one of my favorite poets. He has some crazy metaphors and images that are somehow appropriate. Whimsical without being quirk overload. Mr Craig's poems are funny and contain a spectrum of profound. I fancy myself a poet and I often read him before I write for inspiration. If a broader audience could be exposed to his poetry it would enhance the popular perception of poetry and sell some. Equally neat, Mr Craig's vocation is a farrier, which would be really fun with all those pretty Montana rivers. Paul Handley