An Empty, Abandoned House

An Empty, Abandoned House

By Joseph Hart

84 pages

ISBN: 978-81-8253-804-7

Cyberwit

Copyright 2021

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

Joseph Hart has put together a nice book of free verse and some rhyming poems in this new collection.  The poems are short and to the point, but sometimes that’s nice when you’re reading poetry because the old adage “more is less” can really come to play in a good way in a well written verse or two.

 

From the poem “Keats”:

“A single poet, a God!

Is art the only light?

Around him many millions

Who dream, but cannot write.”

 

Hart puts into words very eloquently what some may think.  Here, in this poem he combines a sense of wonder with desperation and reality. 

 

Hart writes what he feels and about subjects important to him such as the art of writing poetry, cats, and love.  His words will easily resonate with readers.

 

From the poem “Dining Out”:

“In a quaint expensive restaurant,

With music most serene,

Sat several Martians dining

On very fine cuisine.”

 

This poem is reminiscent of Raine’s “A Martian Sends a Postcard Home.”  Except here, these Martians are dining out and well it gets a bit bloody after that, you’ll simply have to read the poem to find out the ending. 

 

Poetry can be so many things.  It’s fun to take knowns and unknowns and set them on their ear, and do something quite different with them.

 

From the poem “Keats” (Please note this is another poem in the same collection using the same poem title):

“I have written poems

While hiding in the night

That no-one but a madman

In love with Keats could write.”

 

Here, Hart idolizes Keats.  His love of poetry and of writing it shines through in this collection.  He closes out his collection with a poem on “The Wizard of Oz,” and more on cats, god and science, music, lines, and perhaps personal memorial type poems.  Hart has a gift of putting poems on the page.  His book is melodious, and a good one to read.

 

 

 

 

~LB Sedlacek’s latest poetry book is “Ghost Policy.”  She is also the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “Words and Bones,” “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  Find out more:  www.lbsedlacek.com