Wind Phrasings: Poems
Shearsman Books, 2009.
352 pages.
No price.

David Jaffin must shed poetry as a Monitor Lizard sloughs skin flakes. After publishing his Eye-Sensings as an Ahadada book, yet another Jaffin book full of of the same toodling note ended up as a 2009 surprise in my mail box. Not that these poems are bad at all, but that one must have a minute to cleanse the palate before more selections of brie-on-cracker are arranged on the dinner table. No, I don’t believe that Jaffin is the 21st century’s Emily Dickinson. No, Wallace Stevens doesn’t pop into mind when I read him. This is approaching the pathological. Though there are blurbs from Edward Lucie-Smith and other luminaries on the back of this zillionth book, I can only think that they were treated to one volume and not ten in as many months. My message to David (though I like him very much) is that Ahadada Books will no longer aid and abet this onslaught. Do something different, Dr. Jaffin, and we’ll be interested. Try something new. I will not add another brick to your steeple. Give us experimental fiction, a “best of,” a memoir, prose poetry, long poetry, religious jokes,–anything but more of these!