The Lineup - So Dark For April

  When most people think of poetry, they probably call up images of love sonnets, lonely clouds or maybe the shores of Gitchie Gumee. Crime, blood, gore, death, revenge? Not so much. Then what in the world is going on with the new poetry anthology The Lineup 4: Poems on Crime?

Editor Gerald So explains that "We hope this encourages poets and writers who discover—as I have—there are some moments, some images, poetry captures much better than prose." Even when those moments and images are down these mean streets where a man must go (Raymond Chandler) because the blood jet is poetry and there is no stopping it (Sylvia Plath).

After reading The Lineup, I can't possibly pick a favorite from the lot, because I've always been fond of both apples and oranges. But, being surrounded by daily news reports of war and unrest and a seemingly never-ending casualty-count coming out of Afghanistan, I was naturally struck by a contribution from Reed Farrel Coleman (who also served as a co-editor and wrote the introduction to the anthology). Titled "Slider, Part 7," it was inspired by the Babi Yar massacre outside Kiev during World War II. An excerpt goes thusly:

None prayed that he could hear.
Mostly they were silent.
Then the
pop pop pop pop pop
of the Lugers and Walthers
and with each bullet
the metal metamorphosis of human beings
into falling lumps of meat.
Then the quicklime
the dirt
more bullets
more bodies
more quicklime.
Layers and layers
like a trifle.

There are many more compact gems included in the anthology: "a mother / shakes on scabbed knees for her son / thrown in a river" (Kieran Shea); "as if the world were on the wagon / and we were practicing / a sober walk test for cops / who were bored" (Thomas Michael McDade); "Blood spreads, pools, shimmers, / Like taillights in the rain" (Steve Weddle). Plenty of powerful images, powerful words, words painting landscapes from nightmares we live, dream and remember. Check them out for yourself, and also read the entries in the other lineup, the month-long blog tour Gerald So arranged to celebrate the book's publication.

Here's an idea: today is Poem in Your Pocket Day, part of National Poetry Month. You can purchase a download of the eBook version of Lineup4 and print out your favorite poem to carry around in your pocket. Share it with a co-worker, a friend, a family member or that guy in rumpled clothes who's always sitting on the park bench giving the squirrels the evil eye. But don't be surprised if he starts quoting poetry back at you, poems he's memorized or maybe poems from his experiences. Because human nature hasn't changed all that much since 400 BCE when Plato wrote "Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history," knowing that every life becomes a poem in its own way.
 
And if the book inspires you, as it surely must, consider contributing your own offering to the next volume, accepting submissions through July 31st.