BOOKMONGER
POEMS TO MARK THE TIME BY
Two poetry collections off er
wise insight for readers
The world seems to be revving back
up for a long-awaited return to “nor-
mal” but I fi nd myself resisting that
slide back into the noise and faster
pace. To tarry a bit longer in a more
contemplative state, I turned to two
poets whose work better suited my
mood.
This week’s books
‘Pages of White Sky’ by Tim Sherry
MoonPath Press — 138 pages — $16
‘The Man Who Whistled, The Woman Who
Wished’ by Florence Sage
Gray Area Press — 140 pages — $20
Both of the poets are elders and
each is endowed with that quiet brand
of humor that’s been burnished by the
long view. While each is nostalgic to a
degree, there’s a dash of vinegar in some
of those memories too.
Tacoma, Washington, poet Tim Sherry
sees the potential for poetry everywhere.
The poems in “Pages of White Sky” bear
that out.
There’s poetry to be found in children
on the beach at the Crescent City Light-
house and at the Little Britches Rodeo
way out in Eastern Oregon.
If one man makes art out of lost hub-
caps, stovepipes and bowling balls,
there’s a poem in that: “What to Call It.”
There’s poetry in museums and in
man caves. There’s metaphor in ille-
gally parking in an unloading zone.
There’s even an “Elegy for the Five Dol-
lar Fill-Up.”
And then there’s acknowledging our
own mortality. Sherry comes at this topic
from different angles but these pieces are
musings rather than lamentations.
“Meditation in the Mirror” is threaded
with rueful humor as the poet acknowl-
edges that the mirror is “… where I
understand / the Stockholm syndrome
– in love with my captor, / that old man
looking back at me.”
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And “I Used To Be My Name” is an
autobiographical sketch that extends
from the youthful glories of the playing
field, to those mid-life years of career
and raising kids, to the present — where
his scaled-back duties include picking
up a grandchild from daycare and play-
ing coachman to her princess as he drives
her home.
From Gettysburg to Ground Zero,
from Ephesus to Elvis — Sherry marvels
at the continuum of life and appreciates
his place within it. This is a fine use for
poetry.
Astoria poet Florence Sage takes a
more focused approach but like Sherry,
she also celebrates the eloquence in the
everyday.
Sage’s poetry volume, “The Man Who
Whistled, The Woman Who Wished”
focuses on her childhood as the daugh-
ter of first-generation Polish-Canadian
parents.
As the third of three children all born
within 11 months to Florence and Vic
Skrekowicz, Sage commemorates her
warm-hearted family in narrative poetry.
While acknowledging hardships such as
wartime rationing and dangerous com-
municable diseases, the prevailing tone
of these pieces is one of accommodation
and belonging.
Whether she is writing about her dad’s
great deal on gallons of “Green Paint”
or her mom taking a sledgehammer to
the dining room chimney or “The Laun-
dry Hustle” adopted by a family with bet-
ter things to do, Sage’s gift is in calling
attention to the lyricism and surprises of
daily living.
The Bookmonger is Barbara Lloyd
McMichael, who writes this weekly col-
umn focusing on the books, authors and
publishers of the Pacifi c Northwest. Con-
tact her at barbaralmcm@gmail.com.