MagicThe Little Book of Fairy Tales & Love Poems. By Iris Berman 2007;23 pp; Poets Wear Prada Press,533 Bloomfield Street, Hoboken, N.J. 07030. $8.00. Cone Investigates. By Bob Heman 2007; 12 pp; Poets Wear Prada Press (see adress above). $6.25. |
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As Iris Berman goes riding with
her lover off the edge of this earth,
Bob Heman's Cone "pulls magic out
of the rabbit and stuffs it into his
hat" so readers will experience the
same when they loosen their grip on
logic to step into the marvelous
worlds of these two poets.
Cone's empiracle investigations lead him "over the edge of the map" into a work as magic filled as Iris Berman's fairy tales. The red shoes lead her "away from/ The beautiful mes... Across meadow and dell/ From Mountain to moutain..." refuse to "stop moving; her mermaid's tears became the salty ocean." Heman's Dr. Cone "melts in the rain...";"the hedonists...view him as a cactus"; when he visits "the city of numbers (he) slides inside a seven and disappears for hours." A Cinderella "happily every after" story concludes not only Berman's title poem but another in which a couple "stoned other of (their) minds... (make) truth of the lies to reach it." |
As if by magic, the fairy tale, rooted
in ancient world, and the scientist's
investigations lead to the same
place. In "Cone Awakens" the doctor
is stirred by a dream to by a
rooster; the old one no longer crows
and there've been new chicks for
a long time. Told there are no more
roosters to buy, he goes into the
woods and sacrifices the fattest rabbit
he sees to the goddess of the
dawn. His old rooster is transformed
as if by magic, and "soon little
chicks are seen hurrying all around
the yard."
Stylistically, these beautifully designed and produced chaplets bear their own distinctive signature. While Berman's poems utilize the short line, a minimum se of punctuation, and are driven by a moderately paced rhythm, sometimes characterized by a refrain, Herman's collection consist of twelve prose poems in as many pages on ivory parchment with a light green tint. |