George Albon

Although I've admired poems of Albon's that I've read in journals, I was somewhat disappointed in this collection. The book is comprised of four quite different and independent sections. I found the initial, longest, group of poems, and the one from which the book takes its title, Momentary Songs, the least engaging. These poems too often seem to be just word games, form games. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against playful poetry, but these just didn't work for me most of the time. On the other hand, once I arrived at the key (the last poem) to the second series, Reading Pole,& then reread the poems with the key in mind, I much enjoyed Albon's riffs on the hobo life as both celebration and cautionary tale. There are lovely lines, such as "Out along the American./ Saucer edge of life." The key consists of a title or explanation for each of the graphic symbols that function as headers to the poems. Together, they tell the tale: "You can camp here./ People here will pay to get rid of you./ Kind woman lives here; tell pitiful story./ Good place to catch a train./ People here indifferent to hoboes./ Hold your tongue./ You will be cursed out here./ Religious talk gets free meal./ Dishonest person lives here./ Dangerous drinking water./ Rich people live here./ There are thieves here./ You can sleep in the hayloft./ The sky is the limit." The prose poems of the short third section, Sunflowers, A Testimony, got my attention with lines such as "the novels flew about half a block away, completely clearing the next-door neighbor's yard, which thus far has remained virgin." The final group of poems, Seven Admissions, is a love letter of sorts to the beloved & to the self, wherein, on the last page and last poem of the collection, "There is/ no kiss without careful feeling for peace." Well said.… (mehr)