Review - Some Kind of Ride

[guppiecat]

Today, I got my copy of Some Kind of Ride in the mail.

For those who do not know, Brian Andreas is a local Iowa poet. Now, I'm not the type to like someones work simply because they happen to live near me, but in this case the proximity caused me to be exposed to his work. Once I had read a few poems, I was hooked on how he views the world. He writes a form of poetry that is part observation, part philosophy and part story (similar to Russell Edson in many ways). He also illustrates the stories and sometimes makes sculptures of them. The line is called Story People, and I find it very intriguing.

So, getting back to the book...

This is the eighth book in his series, but does not require the earlier books to make sense of it. What I like is that as he gets deeper into his art, there are an increasing number of poems that really hit home for me. Maybe it's his growing skill as a poet, maybe it's just that I'm older. I don't know... What I dislike is his art style (I find it sloppy). It's annoying that he has such excellent writing combined with such irritating art. However, when I look at the poems themselves, this book had several that I found excellent. Since there is no way that I could describe his poems half as well as he writes them, here are a few examples that I think show his philosophic, romantic and humorous sides (fair use covers limited excerpts in reviews, right?):



Saving Up

saving up
a bag full of
peak moments
she's going to have
someday if she can
ever get away
from old stuff
that's holding
her back

& you can pretty
well guess how
it's going


Beginning

he followed
the sun & she
followed the stars
& in dreams they
listened closely
for the beginning
of all things, for
that was where
they knew they'd
find each other


Design Flaw

This is one of those
rare bumblebees
who agreed with
the engineers about
not being able to fly

so he mainly
sits around
& watches
the other bees
work themselves
to death.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

i really really love his stuff. my sister got me the story people book a bunch of years back, and there's stuff of his that's funny and entertaining, and there's stuff of his that just hits you like a truck. i suspect that i am a few books behind; i will have to go check and see.