Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems
Template:New unreviewed article
Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems is a 1999 book by American author Edward Steinhardt. The book was the author's second book, preceded by The Painting Birds. This book also included photography by Jeremy Nemerov, son of United States Poet Laureate Howard Nemerov.
Charles Guenther, writing an introduction to the book, said the book “brings us (as Lowell described) both the promise and permanence of the poet's voice.” Guenther said the new collection was “replete with honest and authentic American life in the finest traditions of such greatly neglected poets such as Edgar Lee Masters, E.A. Robinson (Edwin Arlington Robinson), Maxwell Bodenheim and others early in our century.”
The new book, with few exceptions, employed no formal forms. Steinhardt's work was firmly Imagist, free verse, and rarely employing rhyme. Guenther noted that the material was “revealing” but not confessional, saying “life experiences enter his lines, often subtly, for a larger purpose.”
The poems run the gamut of work and play (“Mowing,” “Two Boys in a Field,”) haunting narratives (“Gone-away Lake,” “Night-Demons)” and love and nature poems. The book was divided into four sections thematically, namely, “Relation,” “Nature, “Spirit” and “Solo.”
Richard Wilbur said the work “moves in a characteristic, exploratory way, through scenes large or small, through memories, through relationships.” He said “They are highly readable—talkative, sympathetic, humane—and it is a pleasure to follow their courses.”
Similarly, Robert Creeley was effusive in praise for the collection, saying, “These poems are fact of an enduring human attention to what values and feelings are still possible in our world. They are pledge and record, testament and persuasive story, of a real life in a real time and place.” He said Steinhardt “has learned his art with great determination and humility. His generous authority is clear in every page.”
The work in the latter portion of the book is contemplative and largely psycho-analytical. In a complete break with any tradition is his poem, a playful commentary on the writing process:
Qwertyuiop[
asdfghjkl;
zxcvbnm,./
`1234567890-=
~!@#$%^&*()_+
ZXCVBNM<>?
Other poems, such as “Shadowlands,” are a marked attempt to explore the human psyche. The end of the poem explains the pains in self-investigation or psycho-analysis, We press our nose/To the glass of our soul/And think that whatever should come,/Tempest or not,/We will see our own/Shadow cast upon the wall./We will remember that/We are our company in our aloneness,/That our image is that/Of belief battling unbelief,/Both in ourselves/And when we are in the shadowlands.
This poem was the keystone of an art exhibit in Nashville in 2007.
A thread of spirituality runs through many of Steinhardt's poems, as in the poem of apology “P,” very reminiscent of Nemerov's style and frequent droll look at the world:
We're never really fully born
Until we die—and the difference
Between breath and exit
Is the Manufacturer's guarantee
That we are now, after Milton's Paradise,
Less-bent for evil and more divine.
The best insurance for that, simply,
Is a tattle-tale heart.
Some of the poems are epigrammatic and tongue-in-cheek:
"The Difference Between Living and Dying"
The high-tension wire drawn across the soul:
Promises of heaven, prospects of below.
Bibliography
The Painting Birds (1988) Voices: Poems from the Missouri Heartland (1994) (editor), B.J. Thomas: Back/Forward (1994), Dandelion Dreams and Other Poems (1999) Guardian of Grief: Poems of Giacomo Leopardi (2008) (editor) Standing Pelican: Key West Poems & Stories (2009) Letters to Ryan (2010) Papa's Big Fish: Stories of Youthful Adventure at the Hemingway's in Key West (2010) Sleeping with Rilke: Poems & Prayers (2010)
External links
References
Plowhaus Artist's Cooperative, September 29-October 21, 2007 Shadowland Exhibit, Washington University Arts & Sciences Center for the Humanities, Missouri Center for the Book, “Dreams Fulfilled,” The Washington Missourian (1999), “Coming to Terms,” St. Louis Public Library (March, 2002)