Many Mirrors Many Faces

Michael Williamson was Reference Librarian at the National Library of Canada in Ottawa.

Shulamis Yelin’s second collection contains 33 poems in three sections, “Invitation,” “Of Poets and Poetry,” and “Snapshots.” Dustcover blurbs by John Robert Columbo and Gwendolyn MacEwen mention the strong personal voice of the poet, the entertainment value of the verse, and the insight emanating from “good art.” Well: Okay. There are some mildly entertaining poems in the “Of Poets and Poetry” section, such as “Milton Acorn Reads”:

from which he’s sprung

eyes like diverse winds

nurturing leafy branch.

Overall, however, even the overtly religious poems such as “Why the Sabbath Begins on Friday Night,” “King David,” “A.M. Klein: Jew Without a Ghetto,” and “Revelation” are riddled with clumsy diction, forced rhymes, and a curious lack of focus. It’s as if — and this is particularly true in the “Of Poets and Poetry” and “Snapshots” sections — Yelin is writing an inside joke to her friends rather than to an audience: there is simply not much effort here to reach a little further and render a poem self-transcendent. These poems are stuck in the personal realm and, for all their wit and energy, are not in the least memorable.