This is John Yamrus’s twenty-second book of poetry and his fifth
published by the Canadian publisher Epic Rites Press. You quickly get the
impression while reading this collection that Yamrus lives & breathes
poetry. A solid core of the poems are about poetry but Yamrus takes his
inspiration from anywhere- a headline in the local paper, a visit to a nursing
home, trying to swat a fly, cleaning a pool, staring at the wrinkles in his
face and the like.
Yamrus’s poetry always stems from the blood of his lived experiences. As
he told BM in an earlier interview, “i try and write every day, but it doesn’t
always happen, and the poems come from what’s happening around me. i don’t make
stuff up. i’m not that smart. i see things… i write them down … and move on. i’m
not one of those guys who thinks that being a writer is a big deal… all I do is
hold up a mirror and hope.”
In reference to the title ALCHEMY,
Yamrus recently noted, “Alchemy was the attempt to make gold out of base metals.
This book was my attempt to make the same out of everyday subjects.”
ALCHEMY hits gold in
several of the 118 poems in this collection- his largest since doing cartwheels on doomsday afternoon
(2010). Many of the poems have previously appeared in about two dozen small
publications, such as the iconic underground magazines- Gutter Eloquence, Florescent
Stilts For Your Uncle, Beat the Dust,
Lummox Journal and Zygote in My Coffee. The black &
white exterior cover was created by Julie Michelle Sparenberg and the
collection also includes fourteen full-page illustrations from the Swedish artist
Janne Karlsson which skilfully complement Yamrus’s poetry. A sprawling
introduction by Professor Mark Statman of Eugene Lang College links Yamrus’s
poetry to that of Frank O’Hara, William Carlos Williams, Hans Shan, Ezra Pound,
John Keats and others. I see Yamrus more as a one-off poet who has developed
his own unique style.
Yamrus’s poetry is characteristically minimalistic. The guts of his
writing have incrementally been filleted to the bone over the years. You won’t
find much figurative language in his writing. Forget about extended metaphors
or symbols or obscure allusions. Yamrus deliberately reduces language to its
purest form. In an earlier review with BM, Yamrus argued that he wasn’t dumbing
down the language and robbing it of its beauty and complexity, “what i’m
doing…what i’m trying to do…is give the poem back to the reader. i want to get
THEM involved in the process. like i said…i’m not very smart. i want their
input, so i leave holes in my poems…holes that they can fill with their own
ideas.” As with any skilful writer, when we read Yamrus, we are enjoying what
he is saying about people and their relationships, but also as readers, we are
also intuitively translating his words and creatively forming associations based
on our own relationships and search to join the dots in our lives.
The poems
characteristically are written in lower case, hug the left hand side of the
page and are less than a page in length. Close to fifty poems are less than
twenty words and you will also discover several micro poems. My favourites
include:
don’t
let
the
bastards
fool
you
sometimes,
the most unexpected thing
about beauty,
is
finding it
gone.
not
every man’s death
is
a
crime.
(reprinted with the poet's permission)
These are wise contemporary aphorisms and each of us can think of
people who aptly fit these sayings.
Most of the poems in the collection are based on Yamrus’s personal
anecdotes and reflections and the poems can be comfortably be read in one leisurely
sitting. In a recent conversation with me, Yamrus explained how he assembled the order
of the poems, “As for structure, i wanted to put together a volume that could
subtly almost read as a novel, with each poem leading into the other.”
You will find a wide mixture of other poems in ALCHEMY, including some excellent portrait poems, usually about
quirky, down & out people, such as, ‘jeremy’, ‘his work’, ‘for’, ‘she’,
‘everybody’s got’ and ‘tony’. There are also many solid poems about
relationships- ‘tanya’, ‘i ain’t nothin’ and a few good love poems which
Yamrus presumably wrote for his wife Kathy (who he dedicated this volume to), such
as, ‘i love you’, ‘she keeps’, ‘i found’ and ‘i’ll’.
I find the most interesting poems in the selection are about Yamrus’s
working life as a poet and his reflections on writing and poetry in general. His
perceptions on writing, as on other issues, is always multi-faceted and need to
be read in the context of his overall vision.
Yamrus’s offers many contrasting views on his own poetry. In ‘this poem’s a mess’ the speaker of
the poem, Yamrus derives a sly satisfaction in the notion that some readers
think that his writing “violates/ every rule.” In ‘he said to me’ he agrees with
a fellow writer that he’s “kinda glad/ our books don’t sell” because “we’d end
up/ just like/ them,// worrying
what to/ write about.” In ‘Newman said’ he has a satiric dig at his own stuff:
Newman said
you’re right
maybe they are
catching on…but
they’ll never
catch up.
that’s the thing
with people like
you…
you keep on
pushing.
it’s like that
letter
you got the other
day…
the one
where the guy
said
reading one of
your poems
was like walking
thru dog crap.
they always
want it neat
and pretty
and safe.
but, i’ve been
watching you.
that’s not what
you do.
nothing’s off
limits.
not even the
crap.
i smiled at him
like I cared
he was a good
enough guy,
but, I hoped to
god
he wasn’t finally
catching on.
(reprinted with the permission of the poet)
Yamrus also
provides the reader with his views as to what makes a good poem. In ‘Jesus
Christ’ Yamrus acknowledges “poetry/ isn’t about// perfection” … “it’s/ about/
taking that// corner/ on two wheels// and/ never/ looking back.” In ‘they all
expect’ he says that good poetry “is all about/ surprises.// giving them/
something new.”
The opening poem in the collection ‘give me poetry’ serves as a clear
manifesto for Yamrus’s best poetry and that of his contemporaries:
give me poetry
that’s new
that fails.
that makes mistakes.
give me poetry
that you don’t
know
what in the world
you need to name it.
give me poetry
that bleeds from
the eyes
and
shouts at the
world
give me poetry
that stands naked and beaten,
with its back
against the wall,
still screaming
I AM NOW!
(reprinted with the permission of the poet)
Echoing some of
his earlier work, Yamrus also cheekily but firmly sinks his boots into the rump
of the literary establishment. In a series of playful, highly entertaining
poems, he rails against poetry contests (‘don’t put me’), traditional verse forms
(‘this poem’), writers’ festivals (‘it was another one of those’), pretentious poets
(‘the famous poet’) and university professors- who are good at discussing
literary theory but who do not have “any real heart or soul” in their own
writing (‘they talk a good game…’).
Yamrus also pokes
fun at struggling poets who attempt to write the stuff but who lack the talent
to become enduring professional writers. He reads an anthology of small press
poems and is disturbed by the sameness of the “bad-ass” shit (‘sitting in’). He
scoffs at the internet poet in ‘when i said to Frankie’ who wants to post his
work for free. He slams the “slumming god” poetess in ‘she could have been
great’ who assumes she can write whatever she wishes without considering her
audience. In ‘he said’ a fellow writer can’t understand why his poem- now 12
pages long- isn’t working. Yamrus does. In ‘he had no’ he criticises a writer who
overly tinkers with his poetry, “sooner or later we all/ turn up like Michael
Jackson, // face up/ and naked/ on an autopsy table. // and/ all those/ rewrites
and/ changes won’t ever matter.” In the portrait poem ‘Hardy said’ Hardy gives
up smoking, drinking, red meat- “everything” in the pursuit of his writing career.
Ironically, the wry speaker concludes, “try/ as he might, / Hardy will never
(ever) figure out// the only thing/ he really should give up.” This is shrewd,
dark humour at its best.
In ALCHEMY John Yamrus continues to build on his already
substantial body of work. This collection of poetry is vibrant, diverse and
cohesive. He uses stark, deceptively simple language to distil his thoughts. As
a modern day alchemist Yamrus seeks to transform his “base metal” of words into
gold and he uses everyday incidents to fuel his craft. Yamrus has reached high
and he reminds us all through his risky minimalistic poetry that there is an incredibly thin line between success and failure.
For more
information about John Yamrus find his site here:
