SECTION ELEVEN
sm
COLUMN
NINETY-FOUR, JULY
1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)
BOOK REVIEWS
(Copyright
2002 Joyce Metzger)
ENEMIES
OF TIME
by Donald Lev,
Warthog Press, 2000 (p/b 80pp)
Original
Limited Edition
Donald Lev has been writing and publishing for over forty
years. At the turn of the millenium,
Merry salutes greet the venerated icon, Donald Lev, within
the small press poets, and they are
I can appreciate and thoroughly enjoy this type of thinking
writer. I also enjoy receiving,
then
--Memorial Day?
"I'm Orthodox? my father states,
then turns back to the sportpage,
the skullcap cur from a fedora's lining
securely on his head: my koan then, my koan yet.
* * *
--The Dead Of Marbletown?
The dead of Marbletown
thrive in their way
flaunting proud old epitaphs
the more ancient, the more illegible,
amid September corn fields
and I wonder if the son of Bob Dylan
whose name is Jakob
knows September Song.
*
* *
--Tantalus At The Seder?
glatt kosher!
fork in hand flowers in his eyes lordly mannered
tantalus stabs at a piece of gefilte fish &
bitter herb (he has resolved to be on good
behavior at this, first family Seder in many
centuries).
*
* *
--Nostalgia Poem: Greenwich Village?
"in that light I might see goldfinger, might see steve
tropp, george montgomery, bob white jr., barbara holland,
emilie glen, poor richard davidson, eunice margot, julianne,
rissa, ree, john payne, janet and
cicero; another night might
see kerouac, o?hara, oppenheimer, blackbrun, berrigan, bob
vaughan; another, ed blair; still another the great ginsberg,
or jack micheline, or armand schwerner whistling on a ghostly
reed.
but
hey, the sky is lighting up.
*
* *
Excellent! Every
page burns with thoughts, memories, compassion and melodious melodrama. The
poems in Enemies of Time are berceuse,
a lullaby of luminescent tranquility without the excess of obtrusive, or
lugubrious, chatter-fluff. Lev's
alacrity is briskly cheerful as it appeases even the pessimistic cynical.
The poems in Enemies of Time for the most part are memorials. They are
recollections and timely recognition of whom we are and certainly clearly point
to Donald Lev's identity. This
forerunner messenger is an excellent communicator.
My advice, given enthusiastically, is for you to send to
Warthog Press for a copy of Enemies of
Time. Hopefully they will still
have copies on hand. This reviewer
enjoyed every page. ##
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN NINETY-FOUR
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX
OF COLUMNS
The
Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ