GALATEA RESURRECTS, #2 (A Poetry Engagement)

SHOT WITH EROS: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by GLENNA LUSCHEI

KYOKO ASANA reviews

SHOT WITH EROS: New and Selected Poems by Glenna Luschei
(John Daniel & Co., Santa Barbara, CA., 2002)

Reading Glenna Luschei's collection Shot With Eros is like being in a chamber of magic--the magic working but it may take a little while to notice the effect. Glenna's words, economically and masterfully scarce, do not come raw--they come well simmered and seasoned. Her words sub-lease an aura of silence, where the rich subtleness of her poetry resides. I imagine that she has been in touch with the ultimate nature of her own Being--which I gratefully caught in the second stanza of her “Petroleum”:

When I smelled the peony, I remembered
the millennia, lives I was meant
for, all laid out
You were there.
We were the same body, separated
by the big bang, jetting into the system,
doomed to reunite.

Glenna's poems are presented to us as nonchalantly as Jackson Brown sang his vision from the crazed mind of the 'don't care' generation whose home was highways. What other singer had thought of dangling a harmonica from his neck? This individuality is captured in her poem, “Ticket”:

That sweet man between divorce and new
marriage: fire extinguisher salesman.
Tried to figure
what would ignite me.

He found tickets to Jackson Browne. Late.
Late.
I dreaded 5 a.m.
getting up to teach my freshman
comp class.
He said, “You fell
asleep during Father Sarducci.”

Yet young and old alike can ingest the songs hungrily. The charm of Glenna's poetry comes from the essential light, in the image of immortality. The ultimate Oneness, runs quietly, steadily, through her bloodstream. It percolates in through the hearts and minds of the readers. I believe she is capable of making poems out of any scene, instantaneously--always with that divine lightness and charm. For such a mind, dog drops on the beach are but perfect.

*****

Kyoko Asano has been a practicing poet and artist for the past thirty years. She was an integral part of the poetry scene in San Luis Obispo and now resides in Southern California. She has learned through the discipline of visual art to create is life's most potent will; it will find its way into form like a river that naturally runs, carrying obstacles as well as gifts to the mother sea.

posted by na @ 9:10 PM