Piano Keys and White Paper

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of English at the University of Prince
Edward Island.

From this highly original collection of poems, just two of several
“strains” may be selected for comment. One is melopoeia (pace Ezra
Pound). Oakley, an accomplished pianist, successfully seeks to transpose
onto white paper all the shifting antiphonal rhythms of syncopated
music. Another strain is in the Emily Dickinson mode. In his first nine
poems, Oakley recaptures that poet’s wry, acerbic vision, her
tangential transitions of thought and phrase, her startlingly vivid
imagery. Poem 1 is arguably the best in the book. Oakley’s brevity and
terseness of expression are commendable. He is characteristically
allusive, as in “a wallace stevens night.” Despite all the “paean
of glad praise” on the book’s back cover, one has to admit to
catching on occasion a whiff of preciosity. The cover art, entitled
“Blue Bedroom,” is by Kim Ondaatje; its “chaste design and elegant
line” provide a new and most attractive visual dimension.