Some Things in this World: Poems

by Joyce Thomas

The poems in this collection offer an unflinching look at the human capacity for cruelty, particularly toward animals. At the same time, the poems reveal an empathic connection and radiate compassion for many THINGS IN THIS WORLD, especially living things.

Poem after poem captures the reader, holding you in the grip of language, then releases you, sometimes gently, occasionally roughly, but always changed from the experience. For poets and students of poetry, these meticulously crafted poems offer much to appreciate in terms of structure, sound elements, imagery, and meaning. Additionally, for all readers, the many allusions (mythological, historical, literary) strategically placed to create connections and expand context will add to both the pleasure and pain of the experience. Fresh and surprising diction often had me scurrying to the dictionary only to discover how apt those word choices were, such as murine and clowder, in separate poems about sewer rats and another about great cats. No worries, there are poems for dog lovers, too. The opening poem, “In Praise of Three-Legged Dogs,” will grab hold and not let go easily. Although the speaker in these poems is never intrusive, they are clearly written by a poet who loves words, perhaps as much as the fauna and flora in this world.

Poems like “Think of Penguins” will make you think, And think again! “November,” a poem of just 18 spare lines, is as exquisite a poem as you will find in any collection by any poet. There is music in the language, descriptions are crisp as a November day, and the imagery is transcendently sublime. What reader of poetry cannot see and feel themselves in the closing image: in the last flower’s / gold center, / a cold bee clings / to yesterday. “Mary” is an astonishing poem. The lynching of a circus elephant becomes a spectacle, an occasion for a picnic, while Mary above performs / like some extraordinary high wire acrobat: / a trouper to the last / gasp of her body’s deflating balloon. While many poems depict incidences of animal cruelty, and poems like “1968” portray man’s inhumanity toward other humans, this poem reveals the connection between these two realities. The ending lines have some of the boys who witness Mary’s hanging later become soldiers who will have memories: Of being children once. / The sky above will be gray as lead; looking up, they may remember Mary’s pendulum. Again, a transcendent ending image, a sadness so large it would be difficult to imagine if not shown so vividly. The ending lines of the title poem leave the reader gaping like frogs / whose adhesive scarlet feet / cling like the last berries / to the bush.

There is much to cling to in these poems. Keats wrote, Beauty is truth, truth beauty. Joyce Thomas reminds us that beauty / incongruous often is.