Experiments in Banal Living

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

In the early 1970s, Kingston-born poet Michael Andre moved to New York
City, where he edited the literary tabloid Unmuzzled Ox and held a
variety of cultural posts. The results of this cultural exchange are
presented in Experiments in Banal Living.

Some of the poems in this collection suffer from opaque references. For
example, in the “Easter in New York” verse from the “Experiments
in Banal Living” sequence, we are told that the protagonist, Bob,
“cackled with Jones and Adolf,” but we are not told who “Jones and
Adolf” are. Older readers might speculate that the poet is referring
here to the comic musician Spike Jones, who lampooned Hitler in the
World War II song “Der Fьhrer’s Face.”

The poem “Elegy for a Century of AIDS” displays engaged eloquence.
The poet dates himself, establishing personal priorities by stating that
“[a]lthough ... the Holocaust and Vietnam perturb, AIDS kills my
friends.” The heterosexual poet supports gays by condemning
homophobia, which he subtly blames on the current pope. A reference to
John Paul II as “this cold Pole” may upset readers, but controversy
gives this verse an energetic edge.

This book showcases the mentality of Canadian poetry’s expatriate, a
man praised by the American poet Robert Creeley for having enabled
Canada to conquer “the New York School single-handed.”