The Music of this Ruin By Patricia Barone

“The Music of this Ruin”

By Patricia Barone

103 pages

ISBN: 978-81-8253-724-8

Cyberwit

www.cyberwit.net

Copyright 2021

 

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

This new collection of poetry by Patricia Barone is divided into three sections:  The Aviary, The Listeners, and The Glorified Body.  The opening poem sets the tone for each section.

 

Each poem seems to address a single situation, but could also be part of the section as a whole.  The poems navigate all sorts of emotions and experiences.  Barone’s lines lead each poem in an almost lyrical fashion in some cases. 

 

Her words are fluid.  Each poem will become a part of you after you’ve read it.

 

The poem “Last Night on a Northern Lake” for an Alzheimer’s patient dives right into this tenuous issue.  It handles the grief and loss with such delicacy and turns it into a charging alternate view.

 

The next set of poems are more haunting.  They are focused with a driving force.

 

From the poem “Lyrics for my Bone Loss Blues”:

“Woodpecker who mistakes

aluminum for wood our chimney for a tree—

his tattoo wakes me, it takes

turns with the radio’s drumming beat, Art Blakey’s.

The pecker calls E minor,

a one note repetition

he toots a sharp F higher—

a note I seldom hear,

my stirrup calcified and anvil hammered to my ear.”

 

Her poems are very nostalgic but real.  And as in the above poem, they can be quite musical, too.

 

Unexpected is one word I would use to describe her poems.  It’s very refreshing not to mention interesting to read.  Her poems are able to weave in the emotion of course but to also include visuals, sounds, and thoughts.

 

I enjoyed the poem “Bill’s Last Day With the Railroad” the most.  As a fan of rail, I read the poem with wonder and deep appreciation of a railroad worker’s life in these verses.

 

From the poem “Bill’s Last Day With the Railroad”:

“Their golden wedding trip in Pullman bunks, a train-man’s holiday

shaking, like fast jazz—the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,

the City of New Orleans, its boogie woogie blues. Then Lincoln,

Denver and Boise. What Bill, you’re still up? Your teeth go in this cup.

Countless burg-mounds: Oshkosh, Winston, and Buck. A lozenge

to help you doze? No! He hears the whistle blow dark tunnels.”

 

These poems are majestic beauties.  There’s a blended rhythm of human nature in each one!

 

 

~LB Sedlacek is the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “Words and Bones,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “Swim,” “The Adventures of Stick People on Cars,” “Happy Little Clouds,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her first poem novel is “The Blue Eyed Side” and her first short story collection is entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  Her mystery novel “The Glass River” was nominated for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  She writes poetry reviews for “The Poetry Market Ezine” www.thepoetrymarket.com  You can find out more about her at www.lbsedlacek.com