Rusty Gallows: Passages Against Hate --by Dee Allen

 Nonfiction / poetry

Vagabond

February 1, 2022

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1936293471

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1936293476

116 pages

Print Price: $18.50

5 Stars

 

Dee Allen is a passionate man, and these are passionate poems. The rusty gallows is real. It is an old iron bridge in Shubata, Mississippi from which people were hung and left dangling.

 

Via the marvels of Zoom, I have been honored to see and hear Mr. Allen read some of his poetry, and some from this book. I wish he’d record a CD to go along with it. As I read these words, I heard his voice, which added to the power of the poems.

 

“Doctrine,” the first poem sets the tone, and explains what we find on the next pages, with lines like, “If you’re not…/You are the enemy.” I have a new understanding and empathy of what it meant and still means to grow up black in Amerikkka. And, yes, it’s spelled that way for a reason.

 

This is not a book to skim through. It is a book to read slowly, to chew the words, swallow them, digest them, let them become a part of you. It is a book English teachers throughout the country should read with their classes, discuss the poems, learn a different angle of history than what they think they know. Learn some empathy for people other than whites (who aren’t as white as they think they are).

 

It is not necessarily an easy read, at times it is downright difficult, but it is a necessary read, and one that everyone in the country should read. After all, we all of us are a minimum of 3% to 4% black.

Incidental Moments—by Mark Fleisher

 Nonfiction / poetry

Mercury HeartLink

February 14, 2022

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949652181

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949652185

112 pages

Print Price: $18.00

5 Stars

 

I am always amazed at Mr. Fleisher’s depth of language usage. I have read and enjoyed his book, Intersections, and am proud to place this book, Incidental Moments on the shelf next to it.

 

From the first poem, “Morning Welcome,” to the last poem, “The Fallen,” we are granted access to incidental moments, snap shots if you will, of his life. Morning Welcome with, “...the itinerant canary / but not muffling its birdsong /welcoming the morning / with unscheduled delight.” If I had an itinerant canary to sing to me, I might learn to love mornings.

 

Fleisher has poems that range from “Let it Rain” (he lives in the high desert of New Mexico) to “More than a Few” that begins, “Eight minutes, forty-seconds” and ends that poem with, “The acts of a few bad apples? // More than a few… / so many, so blatant, so common, / enough to turn the entire bushel rotten.”

 

Many of his poems are tributes to life, from “Moon Shot” to “Wonderment,” and a child’s innocent wonder and joy at a special discovery. His final poem is a tribute to “The Fallen.” A Vietnam veteran, he brings special meaning to this poem. It is sad, but powerful, and a good poem to end the book. It will make you think. 

 

This is a powerful book, with delightful moments of tenderness and joy, as well as a few times when tissue and tears are appropriate. It’s a book I will read again, and then again.