Open to Currents

David E. Kemp is chair of the Drama Department at Queen’s University
and author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Among Kenneth Sherman’s previous books of poetry are Words for
Elephant Man (1993), The Book of Salt (1987), and Jackson’s Point
(1989). In Open to Currents, a celebration of the human condition,
subject, theme, tone, and language are unified and consistent, the mark
of a poet whose technical control is unfaltering. Nowhere is this
control more apparent than in “Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” in
which the poet draws an evocative picture of this film noir. Sherman’s
poetry exudes confidence and vigor, and a clarity and accessibility that
are present even in those poems that explore the most difficult of
concepts. Especially captivating are what might be called the travel
poems—short, evocative, and wholly original pieces that conjure up the
tastes, smells, and atmospheres of faraway locations.

This is a remarkably accomplished and sure-footed volume.