Icon Driven

Susan McKnight is an administrator of the Courts Technology Integrated Justice Project at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

This latest collection of poems by Eric Folsom is about the various
icons in our everyday lives. Some of these icons include specific
artists, musicians, poets, composers, and writers. For each tribute,
Folsom adapts his vocabulary and makes subtle changes in his style,
still maintaining his personal control over the subject. A true sense of
each personality is developed through his vivid imagery.

He continues with anonymous icons—bottles, money, wars, the
media—with a less-than-celebratory tone, such as in his powerful
“The paparazzi as angels of the annunciation,” which condemns
society’s reverence for and dependence on television and celebrities,
and “we build the instruments on which to play / a thousand major
chords of cultural conditioning.” The last few poems are of a more
personal nature, with references to various icons, both good and bad.

Folsom’s verse is fast paced and confident, with a reason for being.
Although taken out of context, the following neatly sums up the message
of the collection: “when it comes to your stubborn, bless’d body /
imagine me saying: / did you get my message?”