Playing Poohsticks on Ha’Penny Bridge It usually is a bad idea to assume that the speaker of a poem and the poet are the same person, but with Playing Poohsticks on Ha’Penny Bridge—the first, and hopefully not the last, book of poetry by Edward Lee—it is difficult not to, as the vast majority of the poems here share undeniable thematic similarities. The slender volume is stylistically consistent too, as each poem is written in uncomplicated free verse with simple, unpretentious language. Luckily, what Lee lacks in variety, he more than makes up for in brutally unrestrained honesty. Lee does more than wear his heart on his sleeve; he rips his still-beating heart out of his chest and holds it inches away from the reader’s face.
If sentences like that last one are too much for you to handle, Lee’s raw, often vicious approach to poetry might not appeal to you. But readers who can stomach it will be blown away. Even so, at less than 80 pages, Poohsticks may look unintimidating, but this is by no means a quick and easy read. In fact, it is emotionally draining. For every poem of guileless brutality, however, there is another one of profound sweetness. The contrast between the sweet and sour poems is often disconcerting, but never feels inappropriate due to the stylistic similarities. Most, but not all, of these poems share the same overarching theme as well—love, with both positive and negative aspects explored.
-Greg Silber
Categories:
