Idle Fancies

Idle Fancies

By Joseph Hart

58 pages

ISBN: 978-81-8253-795-8

Cyberwit

Copyright 2021

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

Joseph Hart’s new collection of poems is a celebration of sorts.  The poems pull from life and the experience of writing.

 

Hart conjures up Keats in this poem “Keats’ Picture”

“My photograph of Keats

Is greasy with my kisses.

Could I assume

The spectre of his shape?

Passed time and through the grave

I reach into the past

And summon up the image of a ghost;”

 

What fantastic visuals this poems gives.  Hart writes with a clarity and courageousness.

 

Hart’s poems are curious and consistent.  He writes about relatable things:  the sea, a funeral, love, cats.  What is poetry if you read a poem and simply cannot understand what it is saying?  It certainly would not be a poem worth remembering or re-reading if you have no idea what’s going on.  Hart offers up poems for his readers, poems worth their time.

 

From the poem “Dining Out”

“In a quaint expensive restaurant,

With music most serene,

Sat several Martians dining

On very fine cuisine.”

 

Hart definitely has an imagination.  He’s not afraid to write what other poets may not wish to pen.  Poetry takes guts, and he shows that he has them.

 

From the poem “Lines”

“Mystics, saints and madmen

Thinking they know why

See more than stars and music

In the sky.”

 

The poems in this collection present an everyday but they also show something beyond the verses on the page.  There’s a certain comfort to Hart’s words and the way he puts them together.  He uses plain language to convey what his poems are trying to say.  He expands upon this to say more and to ultimately get his message across. 

 

His poems are useful and artful.  His book is a treat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

~LB Sedlacek is the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “This Space Available,” “Words and Bones,” “The Blue Eyed Side,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “Swim,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her non-fiction books include “The Poet Protection Plan” and “Electric Melt:  How to Write, Publish, Read Walt Whitman and Survive as a Writer and Poet).  Her short story collection is entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  She writes poetry reviews for  www.thepoetrymarket.com  You can find out more:  www.lbsedlacek.com