In the first section of The Man Suit I felt that the poems were being absurd without grounds to do so. In this book Schomburg uses the same sort of imagery yet grounds the imagery in a alternate world, therefore laying groundwork on which the odd images can settle. The groundwork is born from repetition. Most titles are repeated in the first line of their respective poems, immediately establishing a refrain. Even the titles of the second and third poems echo each other with “New Kind of….” Besides these repetitions, hummingbirds, jaguars, tree limbs, and stools invade the entire landscape of the book. It gives poets an excellent example of a book tied together without narrative, instead linked with language. While many ways exist to abandon narrative and replace it with language, repetition is a visible way and with imagery that sticks to the brain, Schomburg does a nice job of offering a cohesive book as opposed to a simple collection of poems.
The book is a map with sections blacked-out. You see trees, you hear water, you sense a large stool in that pond. Yet, it is as if these areas are spotlit during a night without a moon, so you understand that more area exists, but have no idea what exists within that area. This is another strength. Minimalism in poetry often refers to an economy of actual text. Shomburg uses minimalism of shown imagery to scare the reader, forcing the reader to think if this is what I can see, what must there be that I cannot see? He points to the reader’s unknown, which he controls because we are on his map. In this way the book echos the opening poems which is set in a section by itself, titled Scary, No Scary:
You’ll return
to your childhood
home
after a lifetime away
to find it
abandoned. Its
red paint will be
completely weathered.
It will have
a significant westward lean.
There will be
a hole in its roof
that bats fly
out of.
The old man
hunched over
at the front door
will be prepared
to give you a tour,
but first he’ll ask
scary, or no scary?
You should say
no scary.
We are being shown through the rest of the book the second choice, no scary. What we do not see is the scary. What is planted in our minds is one thing, what we do with that is likely worse, more intense than the imagery that brought us to that point.
While I enjoy the idea of refrain that is offered by the title and first line of each poem, the remainder of the book cannot be related to music. A special attention to the sonic quality of poetry is important. In a book the writer has space, imagery, and oration to make the page breathe for the reader-a very limited toolbox-and Schomburg utilizes space, alternating prose poems, page long poems, and three-line poems. He is extremely attentive to imagery. However the sonic quality falls flat. In the poem above, the imagery stands prominent but sound and line breaks seem arbitrary. They serve as a means to an end instead of being crafted in the way the imagery has been crafted. Therefore, the poems rely on the images to carry the reader through the book which can diminish the work, considering the flexibility of the image an individual might concoct compared to sonic aspects of a poem which are more static. Although the book relinquishes control by what is not shown, and in fact makes that sacrifice a strength of the book, I don’t think that same justification applies to the lack of line-by-line music. However, again with the word imagery-it carries the book, the reader, and everything else. What is not in there may be missed, but not sorely.