This fourth poetry collection by poet/translator Michael Favala Goldman questions our sense of place. Goldman writes in “Crux”, “You are in the crosshairs. Stay there.” Yet it seems that no matter where we find ourselves, the present is a mixture of the past and our expectations of the future. Which makes being in the moment so fleeting and challenging. He writes in the title poem, “However alive the present is, the past is more so.”
Several of these poems are inspired by or located in Denmark, a small country with a long history, which the poet knows well from his translation work and much time spent there. For example, the reader will encounter Christiania (“the lawless quarter”) in Copenhagen, and the prehistoric Gram Clay Pit (“today’s light/ enters/ where it’s been dark/ until now”).
In addition the reader will recognize familiar universal themes from Goldman’s previous collections, such as the incongruities of relationship (“After all this time/ you’re still giving me/ not what I want/ but what you/ want me to have/ so you can get it from me.”), and the phenomenon of silence (“Silence/ is so polite/ It says, Please,/ you go ahead./ I’ll follow you.”).
Goldman's compact, chiseled poems challenge our belief in our personal realities. And the poems leave space for the reader to meet themselves within the poems’ context. Which makes the overall experience of If you’re here you would feel at home last longer than the time spent reading it. |
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