More gifts in my mailbox: Three small books and a trade edition of Frank Samperi’s selected poems–all from John Martone, poet and publisher at 1031 10th St./Charleston, Il. 61920-2823. (I’m going to discuss John’s edition of Frank Samperi in another posting.)

John’s three small books (roughly 20 pages each and almost palm-size and just right–incidentally–for Japanese hands), are titled stem, burlap, and spirea, and they address the beauties and the complexities of working outdoors in what may very well be a real garden. I also suspect a fourth volume is in the works, though many of the poems appear to transcend the seasonal.

Right away, the lean, simple “to the bone” life of the Japanese wandering poet/sage are here transplanted to the American landscape:

a lamp
& quilt
that’s all.

There’s wabi and sabi aplenty:

my
second-
hand

dresser
some

day
second-

hand
again

[Above selections from Stem.]

Yet often John transcends what’s fast becoming a cultural cliche–a “school” of Zenglish, if you will: English snipped and pared away until native speakers sound for all the world like bad translations of Basho, Buson, Issa, and the rest–which is to say that in this kind of writing where “less is more” too often “less is less.” However, we come across real flowers in John’s garden in his collection titled burlap:

a grass
hopper

lighted
on my

pocket-
knife
blade

or

burlap
now

need
nothing
else

Spirea renders up more poems and we find ourselves caught up in a riot of utterances, sometimes three or four per page! Some seem to be no more than transcribed post-it notes:

wash
out

last
year’s

seed
flats

in
bath

tub

but a certain energy–an excitement–begins to accumulate as we patch together all the tiny utterances:

year’s first shovelful
many earthworms
none severed.

The creation of the garden and the obvious delight in what the garden brings is wonderfully brought together in:

sweep
garden
soil

from
table

before
eating.

The creation of this garden (or should I say THE GARDEN) as captured in these three tiny books (that are–needless to say–much more than the sum of their parts), is an accumulative Epic, filled with fine things said well. No price is listed, so please contact John Martone if you are interested in purchasing.