Bart Edelman has had many poems published in Chautauqua. Charlotte Matthews, poet and Chautauqua Writers' Center workshop leader reviews his latest collection.
Sleight of hand magicians perform seemingly impossible feats using everyday objects. Think coins, cards, handkerchiefs. Bart Edelman’s Whistling to Trick the Wind does the same, but with rigorously chosen words. This collection is the best kind of trick: one that leaves the reader dazzled. It’s rooted in fact and bravery. It takes on regret and wonder, sadness, and redemption with firsthand knowledge and a deft hand.
Edelman tells us the truth straight out. Tells us that, “after my father’s death,/ for the first time since I was a small boy,/ I began to wish I were not an only child.” In the book’s opening poem, “The Woodpecker,” he tells by wondering, “When the morning mercifully arrives,/ I hear my friend, the woodpecker,/Drilling patiently outside my window./Is his work any different than mine?” The book seems to argue it is not.
The poems are quick on their feet, fast on the uptake. “Crime Poem” begins “Julia was in the kitchen/Mixing up the metaphors,” while “Top Dogs” invites us in with, “You can always tell them by their distinct bark./They know exactly who they are/And make no bones about it.” Indeed, in poem after poem, we meet a fastidious mind, one that is able to banter. If Frost’s definition is right, if, “a poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom,” we find ourselves in the company of real poetry with Whistling to Trick the Wind.
The book is divided into four sections: Yellow, Red, Black, White. They invite us to enter the way an open door would: come in, behold what we’ll find in the yellow chamber. And within those invented spaces, we are given facts. “Omar arrives promptly at 5:35” in a spanking new Prius. “Maude tells Claude it’s over.” So we are rooted, not lost. We can reside in those spaces safely for a good long time. We can sit a spell and wonder, “Who’s to say what’s right?” (Forest? Trees?).
The best parenting advice I ever got was that when the children get upset, take them outside or put them in water. A warm bath, or glimpse of a bright dandelion can make all the difference. These poems give us a space to be our true selves. And that, to borrow, Edelman’s words is, my friend, what good magic can do.
You can purchase Whistling to Trick the Wind at Meadowlark Press,LLC
By Charlotte Matthews
