Robert Krut's book of poetry titled “The Now Dark Sky, Setting us All on Fire” is set at first in the night time city streets. Fire is a consistent theme throughout the book. It starts with a hand that holds fire and ends pretty much the same, one almost thinks of light sabers. The fire sits on the edge of good and bad, once mentioned as demon, at other times as ghost, jellyfish, sometimes animate and other times inanimate, being neither one or the other because somehow the essence of being human and tied to a body slips away.
Above, a recent picture I took at dawn captures what I think the poet means at first read, namely the changes of lighting we experience and how it alters our world view.
Sometimes the breakage between physical body and inner essence in the poems is deliberate as in “Dissipate and Obfuscate” where the poet is “learning/ to let my limbs/ float away” or when “The Cost” when “you can leave/ this room/ but have to put/your hand inside--//the mouth closing/ cleaves it” where the cost of leaving this inability to be heard in a room trapped requires giving up the hand (with or without the fire is unstated). Just in these few lines the reader can see consonance at work, connecting in direction the poem will take.
I can interpret the work in many ways but escape into a different realm and the power an unnamed “You” holds over the poet are strongly tied together. Experience by the poet also is a strong element, with strong use of details that highlight a changing reality from the concrete block being carved, to windows, cars, formaldehyde cylinders, clocks, watches, beetles, and much more.
"You" in the poems can be interpreted many ways, being both singular and plural. It can be some unnamed significant other, the reader, God, the devil, or even poetry muse. It doesn’t seem to matter which the reader attaches; what matters is the clear emotion connected to “you” being present.
Fire appears in many ways, as heat over the body, as light from the sky, from city lights, from reflected lights, from matches and fireworks. However, the meaning of fire is very much connected to the poet and his experiences within each poem.
These three elements, fire, you, and escape from the body, connect the collection together as it works its way through dark city nights, through creatures both imaginary and real. Often the poems feel deeply symbolic more in line with the dream world than reality. The reader follows along with the shifts the poet makes primarily due to the language connections and those three elements. I wanted to discover why, but perhaps the journey was the only part the poet could provide concretely, maybe it will take more books to dig out what is the root. Overall, I found the poetry easy to read and follow and a pleasure to read.
Sometimes the breakage between physical body and inner essence in the poems is deliberate as in “Dissipate and Obfuscate” where the poet is “learning/ to let my limbs/ float away” or when “The Cost” when “you can leave/ this room/ but have to put/your hand inside--//the mouth closing/ cleaves it” where the cost of leaving this inability to be heard in a room trapped requires giving up the hand (with or without the fire is unstated). Just in these few lines the reader can see consonance at work, connecting in direction the poem will take.
I can interpret the work in many ways but escape into a different realm and the power an unnamed “You” holds over the poet are strongly tied together. Experience by the poet also is a strong element, with strong use of details that highlight a changing reality from the concrete block being carved, to windows, cars, formaldehyde cylinders, clocks, watches, beetles, and much more.
"You" in the poems can be interpreted many ways, being both singular and plural. It can be some unnamed significant other, the reader, God, the devil, or even poetry muse. It doesn’t seem to matter which the reader attaches; what matters is the clear emotion connected to “you” being present.
Fire appears in many ways, as heat over the body, as light from the sky, from city lights, from reflected lights, from matches and fireworks. However, the meaning of fire is very much connected to the poet and his experiences within each poem.
These three elements, fire, you, and escape from the body, connect the collection together as it works its way through dark city nights, through creatures both imaginary and real. Often the poems feel deeply symbolic more in line with the dream world than reality. The reader follows along with the shifts the poet makes primarily due to the language connections and those three elements. I wanted to discover why, but perhaps the journey was the only part the poet could provide concretely, maybe it will take more books to dig out what is the root. Overall, I found the poetry easy to read and follow and a pleasure to read.
RSS Feed