© 2009, Boa Editions. 110 pgs. ISBN: 978-1-934414-21-7.

A Review by Sonja James

Michael Blumenthal’s stunning new book, And, is an Eliotic celebration of life in the world as continuum and progress. He achieves this through a simple and seductive meditation upon the conjunction, “and,” and the way it enriches the complexity of language as it shapes lived experience. He introduces us to the intricacies of the conjunction with the deceptively simple first line of the Prologue, of which the sole poem is aptly entitled “And”: “And is a beautiful word, so underrated in the nomenclature of grief and desire.” What follows are full-bodied poems that resonate with the significance of “and” as they encompass flickering afterthoughts as well as the notion of supplemental excess. Through his intense and extended celebration of a single word, Blumenthal explores everything from the prehistory of the world, the vast expanse of interstellar space, romantic love, the ideas of sadness and mortality as well as the quotidian reality of a father and a son. Divided into four sections, the poems exude mystery, pathos, humor, and exuberance. When the poet says, “I’ll be as far from death as a man can be, oh can you imagine that?” he promises life to the reader as well as himself. He also examines the theme of appearance versus reality as he writes “let me sing of the stupefying semblance/ this world has to another, one we can only discern from this one…” (p. 76).

Throughout the book, Blumenthal fuses the mystical and awe-inspiring with the basely existential, and often uses understated humor to root an otherwise ephemeral poem into the concrete base of human experience. One palpable example of this technique is his meditation upon creation, a poem enticingly titled “And There Was No More to Give to the World.” What begins as a standard rehash of the Genesis account of creation opens the door to a wider, scientific understanding of creation as it is presided over by a God who is imbued with characteristics that are part and parcel of the humanity He has just created:

God created the world in a mere six days
and, thinking he deserved it, rested
on the seventh. The animals were done,

the clouds, the paramecium had learned
to swim and divide, even the mockingbird
had mastered its repertoire, and, in the bayous

and swamps of Louisiana, the mix was ready
to welcome feud victims and alligators. Even
the warring factions of the future were prepared,

in their incipient hatreds, to kill and ravage,
and though there was no Wailing Wall as yet,
the species was prepared….and Adam

and Eve, still trapped inside a raptor or a fin-tailed
lizard, were preparing to find each other, so that God,
finally, could relax and enjoy his day….

                                                                                    (pgs. 81-82)

Each of the poems in Blumenthal’s fine collection raises the standards we employ in our perception of what is poetry and of what is excellent poetry. In these poems Blumenthal also enriches our concept of the beautiful as it shapes and gives voice to the ordinary. Not since T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets has an American poet been able to combine so seamlessly the quest of the visionary with the beatific reality of a fallen yet redeemed humanity. These ambitious poems promise to unlock the spiritual potential of each and every modern reader. As such, they deserve to be read and read again.