The Silence of Men
by Richard Jeffrey Newman
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The Silence of Men
Poems by Richard Jeffrey Newman ISBN 0-9723045-8-4
104 pages at $16.00 paperback CavanKerry Press
6 Horizon Rd.
#2901
Fort Lee NJ 07024 www.cavankerrypress.org
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The Silence of Men is Richard Jeffrey Newman's first book of poetry. The book is
beautifully printed and presented by CavanKerry Press, in keeping with the contents.
Newman is a man who has learned from and been strengthened by his life experience.
Love, family, sex, religion, and violence have all played integral parts in making him
the man he is today. Poetically, his words penetrate to the reader's marrow and shine
with honesty and emotion.
Dream and metaphor carry a joyful, triumphant message in this excerpt from "Light."
In the dream, my life was smoke: I couldn't breathe.
So I ran, unwrapping myself down the beach
till your skin, the ocean, lapped at my knees.
I dove in. Your voice was a current,
a melody gathering words to itself
for us to sing, and we sang them,
and they swirled around us, iridescent fish
bringing light to the world you were for me; |
A man's sorrow is often unexpressed, or seems blunted to observers. This excerpt
from "Who Knew?" clearly shows the shock of loss and grief:
I'm waiting for the tears that didn't come
when they put him in the ground, that wouldn't come
among the family friends and relatives
who later came to mourn. The small talk
they made of other deaths to make their own
smallness less apparent made my brother's dying
smaller by the hour…. |
Newman's stark honesty goes beyond simply personal experience. He's equally adept at
adopting another's persona. "Sarah's Story" is one of several examples:
It was, of all the ways we ever touched,
the most intimate: His belly bloomed red,
ragged petals of flesh ringing the void
his small intestines should have filled. I pushed
his insides back inside they saw, they watched
carried him to our hospital and prayed.
They followed like bloodhounds and when he died
dumped him in a mass grave. That night, I retched
through seven corpses till I recognized
his wounds and lifted him one last time,
properly, into the earth. He was cold,
hard. After I laid him out, I held
his hands to my breasts and whispered his name.
He didn't warm. I kissed him. His eyes stayed closed. |
"Poem from the Barnes and Noble Café" is a narrative poem that must be read in its
entirety for full effect. Newman contemplates many topics and scenarios here, but
I've chosen one excerpt addressing fear:
I'm thinking how much
the world needs fear right now,
to step back from the mouth
of what has not yet happened,
like you'd want a suicide bomber to do,
or a soldier with orders to shoot civilians. |
Richard Jeffrey Newman's work is exceptional. Readers won't have to scratch their
heads and guess at his meanings. He expresses human emotions in ways profound,
powerful, and poignant. In The Silence of Men, he tries "to give the dream a shape
this page will hold." How he gives life to those words taking shape on the page is an
enlightening journey.
This book of poetry for mature readers is highly recommended.
review by Laurel Johnson |
