Variations on the Birth of Jacob

James Deahl, of Mekler & Deahl Publishers, is the author of Poetry
Markets for Canadians, Under the Watchful Eye: Poetry and Discourse,
Even This Land Was Born of Light, and Mix Six.

One has come to expect people’s poetry from Steven Michael Berzensky
(better known as Mick Burrs), and this collection delivers. These poems
are accessible, full of life and hope, and committed to opposing what
their author calls the “poetry police.” Berzensky knows that poetry
can liberate, and his poems seek to set readers free of the cages that
so often ensnare modern people. He knows that true poems, such as the
ones written by Osip Mandelstam, will continue to live long after the
poet and his murderers have passed into history.

The book is divided into three sections. Section 1, Undeclared
Articles, deals with Mandelstam and the nature of poetry. Here the poems
are objective and vividly written. While Mandelstam may have been
defeated by the “poetry police,” his poems were not; they continue
to speak to us, and we can and do learn from them.

Section 2, Illuminations, is an odd collection of pieces that do not
always work well together. Many of the poems date from the early 1980s,
while others are recent. The problem is that Berzensky’s prosody has
improved greatly over the last 15 years so that the older poems suffer
when placed next to current examples. “Caretaker’s Hands,” parts
of which date from 1982, is simply not good enough to be placed near
“In the Violence of Our Time.” The only example of an older poem
that comes up to the standard of his recent work is the title poem,
which appears in the final section of the book; this is a superb piece
on birth, that magic “instant when / eternity / cancels death
forever.”

This is Berzensky’s best book so far. The awkwardness that tended to
mar his work in the past has been replaced by smooth speech-rhythms and
memorable lines. No longer is his versification the slave of content;
finally language and thought work as partners.