A diverse collection of poems, this collection confronts the personal, the stories of others, and even translated works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. I have never read his poetry and found myself captivated by Mosson's translation of Nearness of the Beloved. Beautiful poem.
I enjoyed the poems inspired by the works of the artist James Abbott McNeil Whistler. This one in particular was my favorite:
Whistler's Sketchbook: Circling Home
Village walls ivory in the moon's full tide
where streets and doors hammock in intermeshes of darkness.
I follow a lone man who strolls home at midnight
with steps that crack across the public silence.
Moonflood alludes to the songs of interiors
of which the sunlight pencils mere outlines.
Moonlit walls cradle diaries and dreams
shared inside with the day's earned bread.
I watch standing in the street's well
as wind slips along the shuttered windows.
Half through this tour, I've gathered good sketches
touched at the root, touched at the limit.
The poetic vignettes based on historical accounts of trench warfare during World War I were striking. Thinking of the hundreds of thousands of people who perished at Verdun is eye-opening to the atrocity of war. Letter by a French Soldier, 1916, Found at Verdun was especially poignant for me...
I should've scribbled of this a week ago, but now we're here:
The final road ahead -- "The Sacred Way" -- that snakes down
through farmer's fields to the rumble, we've arrived to camp
at its mouth. Mammoth lines of men
file in, shoulder to shoulder past
those filing out. Marie, you'll know
where I am when you read of Verdun. It was calm
in our last spot. Grass sprung
in front of our trench. German machine-guns raked us
just for an hour after supper. Soon, I will be able to say
I was here, for this thrust
might end our trench life if we
can break through somewhere. Now guess:
I picked up a lamb's wool vest
on the way, from an old villager,
and chocolate -- which I've stashed --
all for my necklace -- the gold one Father
gave me. The wool will help me duck
winter frost in trench bogs
that's coming. Don't tell him though.
I can just picture this soldier, hunkered down in the trench, not knowing what will happen...not knowing if he will survive. It's the personal stories that are always the hardest.
This is definitely a collection for lovers of poetry, and even lovers of art. I highly recommend it.
About the collection:
Through poems at times personal, plus vignettes from men and women of the past two centuries in the book’s middle section, these poems offer mirrors of becomings.
Readers encounter melodies from diverse lives. Across free verse, meter, and poems of organic form, you might just see yourself.
Advance Praise:
“Through a series of beautiful meditative lyrics, Mosson links childhood and adulthood, journey and reckoning, memory and wonder. A humane and earnest poet, Mosson is as much attuned to ‘songless streets of Baltimore’ as to ‘trees’ unnamed relation to the world.’ He captures this attunement with carefully measured language and impressive precision. Many poems are probing observations of places and people, rendered in verbal landscapes revealing his debt to visual artists. Hans Hofman, Philip Guston, Henry Moore are three invoked in this volume. The poems in Singing the Forge create a philosophy of life centered around the idea of harmony with the universe – even if harmony’s always at the verge of disintegration. They should be paid attention to and cherished for this reason.”
“Through a series of beautiful meditative lyrics, Mosson links childhood and adulthood, journey and reckoning, memory and wonder. A humane and earnest poet, Mosson is as much attuned to ‘songless streets of Baltimore’ as to ‘trees’ unnamed relation to the world.’ He captures this attunement with carefully measured language and impressive precision. Many poems are probing observations of places and people, rendered in verbal landscapes revealing his debt to visual artists. Hans Hofman, Philip Guston, Henry Moore are three invoked in this volume. The poems in Singing the Forge create a philosophy of life centered around the idea of harmony with the universe – even if harmony’s always at the verge of disintegration. They should be paid attention to and cherished for this reason.”
—Piotr Gwiazda, Professor of English, Univ. of Pittsburgh
“Mosson’s poems are magical, memorable and meticulous, speaking to the powerful pull of locales and weathers and loves, yet get pinned to the memories of a reader with lines like these, spoken by a physician in his old age: ‘The nursing home is out there like a shark/ that has swallowed so many of my patients one by one.’ Give a copy to someone you love but be sure to keep one for yourself.”
—Clarinda Harris, Professor Emeritus, Towson University
—Clarinda Harris, Professor Emeritus, Towson University
About the Poet:
G. H. Mosson is the author of five prior books and chapbooks of poetry, including Questions of Fire (Plain View Press), Season of Flowers and Dust (Goose River Press), and Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time (Finishing Line Press). Two of the chapbooks are collaborative, Heart X-rays & Simultaneous Revolutions (PM Press). His poetry has appeared in The Tampa Review, California Quarterly, The Hollins Critic, The Potomac Review, Smartish Pace, Lines & Stars, Free State Review, and across the U.S. He has MA from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, MFA from New England College, and his poetry has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. Mosson is a lawyer, father, writer, and yes, dreamer. For more, seek www.ghmosson.com. He is on X.
G. H. Mosson is the author of five prior books and chapbooks of poetry, including Questions of Fire (Plain View Press), Season of Flowers and Dust (Goose River Press), and Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time (Finishing Line Press). Two of the chapbooks are collaborative, Heart X-rays & Simultaneous Revolutions (PM Press). His poetry has appeared in The Tampa Review, California Quarterly, The Hollins Critic, The Potomac Review, Smartish Pace, Lines & Stars, Free State Review, and across the U.S. He has MA from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, MFA from New England College, and his poetry has been nominated four times for the Pushcart Prize. Mosson is a lawyer, father, writer, and yes, dreamer. For more, seek www.ghmosson.com. He is on X.
