Just Beautiful
by Tim Suermondt
NYQ Books
New York, NY
Softbound, 105
pages, $14.95
Review by Zvi A.
Sesling
Bittersweet humor
should be kept in a poet’s back pocket or purse and pulled out whenever
necessary. In this new volume of Tim Suermondt’s poetry there is the bittersweet
and the humor and sometimes a combination of both. Take for example
the following
poem.
Winning the
Pulitzer
Don’t laugh.
I have the chops.
I have the poems.
If I can outlast
the academic
mumbo jumbo
I’ll have a
legitimate shot,
a puncher’s chance.
At the awards
ceremony
I’ll thank
everyone
who helped me,
give the Bronx cheer
to everyone who
never did
and return to my
study to write the next poem
like I always
have and wanted to
oh those many
years in the wilderness.
As you read his
poems you might think, “Light, fluffy.”
But a second reading reveals a deeper context to the poems that deal
with everyday life, jealousy, love, fame, and almost always, humor.
Looking Forward
Boldly
Almost all my friends
have become blackbirds.
--Eugen Jebeleanu
A few will become
hawks and eagles –
the one who owes
me money will become
a buzzard if he
doesn’t pay—standard
punishment. I
expect my wife and I will
become
kingfishers, diving I the deep waters,
we and hungry
every day, pecking ourselves
clean on the most
beautiful beaches.
The three parts of the book you
can see Suermondt moving, that is, motion is as important as humor and
beauty. And that is what Just Beautiful is really about: the
everyday beauty of life, of people, of living. But what I like most is his easy
slide-it-in-there sense of humor that leaves you saying to yourself, “Oh,
that’s good.” Perhaps you have a silent
chuckle, reread the poem and move on. That is what it is all about, past,
present and future and the final poem, The
Present and the Future, tells you what you have thinking all along.
Suermondt has published two chapbooks and with
this volume, two full length collections of poems. He has been published in numerous magazines
and journals, as well as online. He lives in Brooklyn
with his wife, poet Pui Ying Wong.
_____________________________________
Zvi A. Sesling is
author of King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Street,
2010), Across Stones of Bad Dreams
(Cervena Barva, 2011) and the soon to be published Fire Tongue (Cervena Barva). He is Editor of Muddy River Poetry Review and Bagel
Bards Anthology #7.
