Looking for Potholes by Joe Wenke explores the changing fluid world by which live and the fluidity of the relationships we now have with one an alternate. Like in “Then and Now,” it starts off simply discussing how once we are young, we can shoot baskets and drink soda, but when we age we cannot. But he goes deeper to suggest that as we age we are inclined to close ourselves off to new reports and relationships, but in addition to even those relationships and studies we already find ourselves in. “You used to maintain going.
/Now you stop. //We’re here for the moment. /No one knows/how long you stay open,/should you close. ” pg. 3Life is full of potholes, those moments where things are thrown off track. Wenke is adept at twisting subtle insults and jabs into something that can be admirable, like being regarded “Choosy” meaning the narrator had the fortitude to decide on the partner he’s with and calling him choosy.
Wouldn’t you like some who is discerning pick you?Many of those poems lack a feeling of regret, but applaud the sense of recognition and living in that moment and making it the most effective. “Lying Liars” is a poem steeped in irony, with the liars carrying on with to spin their tales to your face and behind your back as a result of that’s all they understand how to do. But the rub is that the folks they speak to don’t agree with them, and the liars end up deceiving themselves. Readers will enjoy these playful pieces by which the narrator is tricked by his own brain in “I Think Without Thinking. ” Wenke is nearly whimsical in his selection of words, ensuring that they rhyme or deliver the necessary sing song nature of those poems. However, there are some alluring poems besides that are less about being funny, though they still may include humor.
One of my favorites, “Star Stuff,” begins with a quote from Carl Sagan and how we are manufactured from star stuff as a result of our DNA is product of nitrogen, iron, calcium, and other parts present in collapsing stars.