The White Line

Ian Calder is a Toronto-based free-lance writer.

In his second collection, The White Line, Moses presents a feast of
poetry. His book is filled with poems, which are illuminating and
delightful. Nature and everyday life provide the subject for Moses’s
poems, but he skillfully invests them with the potency of myth.

In the first poem, “Song of the Worms,” Moses shows his wit and
skill as a poet. Hoping to learn how to survive underground, the speaker
(a corpse) welcomes the worms that come to inhabit him “by suggesting
they come in from the rain. / I’m just another one of the Drowning, /
and much friendlier than I’ve ever been.” As the poem progresses,
the image patterns of song, house, and body intertwine and resonate with
meaning. In the fourth stanza, the speaker complains that the worms
“know they’re the throats who laud all matter / I’m simply a
church for their boring hymns,” revealing Moses’s playful spirit and
poetic strength.

One prominent feature of Moses’s work is his use of enjambment, which
keeps his lines and verses moving quickly. In “The Fall,” the lines
bring the reader swiftly to the sudden turn, which increases the
conclusion’s impact. Moses focuses on the trivial and then, with a
quick turn, makes it powerful and meaningful: “The mud halfway there
holds // on so to the black rubber / boots that the picture // book
falls open / faced and even in // a sock the child’s foot is / naked
to the splash. His cries // stream out like wordless / questions and the
crow who passes // quickly through the open / seems to mimick them.”

The subject matter may be earthbound, but Moses imbues his poems with a
spirit that makes them soar. In “A Seance,” Moses masterfully
handles traditional sonnet form. His collection also includes “Poppies
in November,” “Bee Muse,” “Grandmother in White,” “Aren’t
You Tired of Fire,” “The Line,” and more wonderful poems.