Herb Kauderer
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What Stranger Miracles by James Brush 2016 White Knuckle Press Chapbook #37 whiteknucklepress.com. 14 pages.  Free online at: http://www.whiteknucklepress.com/#!brush/tzszf
 
James Brush is the editor of Gnarled Oak, an online literary journal that occasionally includes speculative poems.  He is also a prolific micropoet and blogs on an extensive author website at coyotemercury.com.
 
Like the other books in the White Knuckle Press series, the book consists of ten prose poems of less than a hundred words each, and in this case, thematically linked by the sea.  The book was released in June, and is not marketed as speculative poetry, though other books in the series may also qualify as speculative such as the three books by SFPA member Robin Wyatt Dunn.
 
Some poems are obviously speculative such as “Thrown to Sea (I)” with images such as, “The ocean spits out plastic: faded, thin, but whole.  The great-grandchildren of those who threw it in retrieve the relics, invent stories and religions for their ancestors...”  Others are deliciously nebulous about whether or not they are speculative.  “She wondered if horses knew about fish.  Did equine visionaries imagine them and call it sci-fi?” (from “Beginner’s Mind).
 
Portions of poems are highly lucid, while other portions step out into surrealism.  An example is the poem “The Difference Engine”.  “Extinctionism” and “Summoning” step into the sideyard of horror. 
“The World Is a Magnet” steps toward science fiction with its opening lines, “Compasses pull toward the heart, the pole star.  This is understood in the robot impulses of beetles.”
 
I believe the nature of prose poems is that they are more dependent on the rhythm of the sentence than other kinds of verse.  Brush masters this.  The movement from poem to poem is just enough to permit new variations on the rhythms; but overall the poems speak with one voice. 
 
In the end the book creates a dislocation and altered world view, as some of the best poetry does.  In under a thousand words it looks at the world through the eyes of generations, handles myth-making in a hands-on way, and makes the endurance of plastic an unintended heirloom.
 
Given the brevity of the collection, its accomplishments are impressive.
 
-Herb Kauderer

​Originally appeared in the SFPA Poetry Book Reviews Page Fall 2016, and excerpted in Star*Line
  • Home
    • About
    • Contact
    • Orthopedic Horseshoes
  • Academics
    • Teaching Experience
    • Education
    • Courses Taught
    • Professional Affiliations & Recognitions
    • Academic Presentations & Related Materials
    • Full Curriculum Vitae
  • Poetry
    • Poetry Chapbooks & Other Books
    • Poetry Samples
    • Links to My Poetry On-Line
    • "My First 508"
    • Interviews and Featured Poet appearances
    • Featured Readings
  • Writing
    • Accolades
    • Drama
    • Book Reviews >
      • 'Sacrificial Nights'
      • Moon Facts by Bob Scholfield
      • What Stranger Miracles
      • Crowned: Sign of the Dragon Book 1
      • 'The Role of Lightning in Evolution'
      • 'Why Elephants No Longer Communicate in Greek' by Timons Esaias
      • Brief Encounters with My Third Eye
    • Flash Fiction Links
    • Prose >
      • Short Fiction Bibliography
      • "A Dwarf for Each"
      • "Standard Repair"
      • "Sense of Place, Sense of Mystery"
      • Intro - Come-on from the Horse on 7th Avenue
      • "No Sense Fighting"
  • The SCA
    • SCA Photos 1
    • SCA Photos 2
    • Precedence for Andreas Hak
    • SCA Persona
    • Offices Held in the SCA
    • SCA Writings >
      • Serenity: A History of Eastern Coronets
      • "The Origin of The Betting Man's Guide
      • "The New Newsletter"
      • Old Newsletters
      • "The New Newsletter"
      • "When the VOID Was One"
      • "The Hael's First Baronial Champions Event"
      • "Aftermeetings: An Excuse to Tell Svid Stories"
      • "The Origin of Aethelmearc's Ancestral Pelican Medallion"
      • Remembering Durlome Rakesh d'Mithnan (Dwarf)
      • Growth Chart of Kingdoms for the First 23 Years of the SCA
      • Doings... An incomplete and informal chronology of the earliest days of Aethelmearc
      • History of the East Kingdom
  • Something Like a Blog