Am I Glad to See You

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and
author of Calling Texas.

This is an interesting first book, but a little premature. The family
poems in the opening section seem mostly apprentice work, and the book
has too many prosaic efforts on minor subjects. Line lengths tend to be
monotonously short, which impedes the development of rhythms. But there
are several good prose poems, and “Detroit Winter Suite” is a strong
sustained effort with powerful images and effective sound patterns,
showing that the poet can deal with urban scenes and works of art
adroitly in the same sequence. In “Starlings, Victoria,” the poet
summons up these gregarious birds through his wing-like arrangement of
lines on the page and conveys the sound of flying birds through
onomatopoeia. A tribute to P.K. Page, “Xerox,” manages to evoke her
wonderful poem “The Stenographers” with fine images and delicate
sound patterns. The tribute is worthy of the subject. Ruzesky’s talent
needs honing, but it is definitely a talent.