Per-City Poems

by Zachary Kluckman

Reviewed by Janet K. Brennan

In this tapestry of life and emotions, we are escorted down city streets in the course of twenty-four hours that lead to a life-time. Even in after hours when quiet is the rule and doors are locked, city seethes with activity on every level . Even the most obtuse can not help but wonder about the lives of the people on the other side of those doors as well as what secret is hidden away carefully in each closet.

Zach Kluckman's Per-City Poems is one of the finest examples of a book written entirely in Personal style. Never does the reader lose site of the fact that they are adeptly guided through the intricate lives of others by way of vivid detail and story, as well as descriptions of the material and often emotional landscape. Poet Zachary Kluckman, never once allows us to lose sight of the fact that he is, in fact, accomplishing this difficult art-form. Often the reader is left to wonder just who is narrating the story. In fact, one might wonder if the story is fiction or true. In Per-City Poems there is always the suspicion that perhaps these poems may be written by the individuals who live in the city with each person telling their own story in their own unique style.

In his "The Temperance of Vanity," Kluckman chooses to use a multi-voice style where two characters share the spotlight of the poem, with one predominating. This incredible poem has a tell-tale message in its style of narration which brought me directly into the scene as it unraveled before me.

Holding this figure of grace,
He wondered if God ever holds us
In someone else's arms. Tears like wine
On their tongues, he said "I'm sorry"
Twice. Kissing the mother of his
Son.

Indeed, Kluckman, in his personification of God holding his children in someone else's arms, is showing us what his poetry is really all about. He holds his readers in the arms of the narrative stranger who may or may not be Kluckman himself.

In reading this wonderful book, I had the sense that I was being taken on a guided tour through the heart of a city that never really does sleep and spews out its secrets to anyone willing to listen. In "The Flight of the Sparrow," we are watching children in a playground, graffiti on a wall, and a little girl who watches her brothers play because she can not. Yet, once again these revealing lines surface as Kluckman seems to be actually referring to his own method of writing, with the city as a back-drop metaphor.

"Children painting impressionism on walls
Because the shallow dimensions and landscape framing paper
Of sketch pads are too small for paradox
Too fragile to contain Herculean imagination
Writing stories that won't fit the textured canvas in dream journals ..."

My favorite poem by far is "Stranger in a Silent Movie"

"The night might breed streetlights
Lend cool air, husky perfume
To a mystery best solved by the question"
"Stranger in a Silent Movie" is actually the summation of all of Kluckman's poems in this book. We are eavesdropping on a city and its people and perhaps they are welcoming us into their lives with avid curiosity about our own. We realize that the city is tantamount to the human soul in its many faceted contributions to life.

Per-City Poems is an intelligent, unique, compilation of Persona Poetry that is framed with an edge. Kudos to Zach Kluckman for this presentation of exquisite modern poetry.

For more information on this book or where to buy it, go to Per-City Poems at Amazon.com