Quote:
Originally Posted by John Riley
Bronk is always compared to Stevens and of course he comes up short. I do agree he has one tone and it wears thin in long stretches. I do have a place in me though for his poems and the type of poems he wrote. They don't have the dimensions of Steven or Frost, have fewer aspects or levels, but several of them are interesting and worth going back to periodically.
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I agree, John. It's not really a fair comparison. I really did like what I read of Bronk. In fact, I do revisit his work, and it has inspired my work indirectly, and a few times directly (I have a poem that takes a line from the following poem). He is what he is: a compelling poet who--once you've gotten a sense of his poetry--does mostly variations on a theme by Bronk.
"Midsummer"
A green world, a scene of green, deep
with light blues, the greens made deep
by those blues. One thinks how
in certain pictures, envied landscapes are seen
(through a window, maybe) far behind the serene
sitter’s face, the serene pose, as though
in some impossible mirror, face to back,
human serenity gazed at a green world
which gazed at this face.
which gazed at this face.And see now,
here is that place, those greens
are here, deep with those blues. The air
we breathe is freshly sweet, and warm, as though
with berries. We are here. We are here.
Set this down too, as much
as if an atrocity had happened and been seen.
The earth is beautiful beyond all change.