Any Moonwalker Can Tell You: new and selected poems

I’m picky about my poetry. I was raised on Shakespeare and lyrical verses, and while I can appreciate sparser works, I’ve found I sometimes look down on modern poets. Part of this may be because the truly brilliant works have not yet filtered through time as things from ages ago have. Part of it, similar to the first, may be the sheer glut of poetry one can be exposed to. It’s easy to grow disillusioned with things when one is constantly surrounded by them.

All this is just a preamble to say that I loved Joel Peckham’s collection, and I very much hope that you do too.

For anyone who read my first paragraph and is worried that I enjoy Peckham’s work because it reminds me of long, dense odes from centuries past, that worry couldn’t be further from the truth. The poems are plainspoken, ordinary words that celebrate the beauty of ordinary things. Phrases might rush and tumble, but whenever I had trouble parsing them, it was only because I found myself reading too fast so that I could devour the words. Going back and reading again revealed them to be clear but deep.

Peckham’s greatest strength, in my opinion, is his imagery. The descriptions never feel self-indulgent, and it’s clear that each word has been chosen with precision and care to craft an image meant to leap out into the reader’s mind. Little gaps and blank areas in that imagery don’t feel like omissions but invitations, attempts to allow the reader to bridge the gap and allow the poem to fit into their life as well, to become something they know, even if they have never been in the specific scenario the poem describes. Some part of it will still connect with them.

I do have one caution for readers, which I mentioned earlier. The clarity of language and the ease with which each line can be read might tempt you to speed through the poems, as I found myself doing at times. (Why shouldn’t I, with no antiquated language or baffling turns of phrase to trip me up?) When I did that, I found myself picturing what was being described, but with no notion of how I got there. Take your time! Reread them! The poems will reward you for it.

Any Moonwalker Can Tell You is one of the best poetry collections I’ve read lately. I highly recommend it.