cover image Standoff: Poems

Standoff: Poems

David Rivard. Graywolf, $16 trade paper (96p) ISBN 978-1-55597-745-0

Rivard (Otherwise Elsewhere) stands “inside the murderous/ machinery” to take up a better perspective on the noise of the modern world. He incorporates a wide swath of references, images, and source materials, reflecting the haphazard nature of postmodern mass culture. Moreover, Rivard possesses a charmingly clever and idiosyncratic facility with his metaphors and turns of phrase, as in “the nutshell/ space of the mind” or “the vexed/ but coppery-bright buzz that likewise/ comes if you cup a loud cricket in your hand.” But for all the delightful wordplay, too often it’s difficult to discern any direction; the language seems to add to the din rather than distilling a focused critique of it. Elsewhere, Rivard presents unvarnished moments for deep contemplation, but has a habit of undermining himself by striving too hard for profundity. In “Call and Response,” he notes a previous reader’s marginalia on a Zbigniew Herbert poem, pondering the emotions of the note-taker. But in commenting on the distance between the dead Herbert and the “troubled, nameless” reader, Rivard ends up leading the horse to water and expecting it to drink. Perhaps Rivard should have better trusted his own advice that “some of what happens/ by accident occasionally/ (or more than occasionally)/ ought to be thought/ a gift.” (Aug.)