Flickers: Poems

By William Trowbridge

In his latest collection of poems, William Trowbridge explores the fascination Americans have with movies, how "flicks" allow us to temporarily forget our problems and, ironically, to forget that real conflicts are what make us human. The language he uses is the American language of pop culture: sports talk, movie talk, shoptalk, and clich?s--all are blended together into carefully crafted lines that are uniquely Trowbridge's. Readers will be delighted to follow each poem to its effectively understated end.

These poems are dark comedies that capture both the eerie and the ordinary. This balance is not easily achieved, but like a veteran comedian executing a pratfall, Trowbridge makes it all seem natural. His surreal family, the Glads, satirizes life in suburbia and reflects the often absurd margins of our urban lifestyle. By contrast, a group of poems revolving around a packing house in Kansas City (Trowbridge worked there as a young man), reminds us of those darker places in our lives that exist just "across the street from the ledgers and lapels."

The variety of subjects Trowbridge works with is refreshing. Whether he is writing about Buster Keaton, Fred Astaire, June bugs, baseball, the holocaust, Cadillacs, or old dogs, his eye is always focused on the turn of phrase that will catch us off guard. His well-crafted lines are full of wit and humor. He approaches his subjects like Coyote approaches Fox--smiling, ready to expose his dear friend to the reality of his existence through sleight of hand. And, like Coyote, he teaches us to laugh at ourselves or perish under the weight of our everyday lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1557285861
• ISBN13: 9781557285867
• Release Date: July 2000
• Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
• Length: 94 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Looking at life via the silver screen

Muhammad Ali and his "rope a dope", Karl Wallenda's fateful last trip across the high wire, and Gorgeous George's escapades in the ring are all part of this fascinating collection of poems by William Trowbridge. Images from the silver screen and TV mix with insights into life; reflections of today as seen through the slightly skewed perception of Hollywood creating images ingrained in our imaginations and unleashed for inspection through Trowbridge's insight. Stan and Ollie cavort as representatives of sex and anger confronted by authority; the "magma landscape" of the shoe exhibit at the Holocaust museum, and Michael's kiss of death for his brother Fredo are some of the images that Trowbridge uses as a base for his word play. There are also a number of trips into Trowbridge's personal life, childhood remembrances and painfully examined relationships with aged parents that allow you into the true wonder of what well written poetry can accomplish; a truth and emotion that only poetry can convey. The only misfires here are the series of poems featuring The Glad's, a sort of pseudo suburban family that seems more than a bit heavy handed in its attempt at satire. But the poems that work are truly memorable and will stay with you for a long time.