When
I was tasked with writing a review of Rick Lupert's latest book of
poetry, The Gettysburg Undress, I was
excited. Why? I thought it would be easy since Rick is one of my
favorite poets, and a wonderful person who has done so much for the
poetry community not just of Greater Los Angeles, but also worldwide
with his Poetry Super Highway site, and phone in poetry open reading
pod casts. Not to mention that he was the generous host of the long
standing, but now sadly defunct open reading at the Cobalt Cafe, who
made gorgeous broadsides for every featured reader.
Instead
it's the opposite experience because how do I do justice to a writer
I admire so much? Do I take off my clothes, but here in Phoenix, as I
can't afford the plane ticket to Gettysburg? It is in the 90's here
already. It could be refreshing. However, my thighs will stick to the
chair, so I go hyper literal instead, and opt to write in pants, and
a shirt.
It's
a good thing I opted for clothes, since The Gettysburg Undress is an anthology of poetry
about a family vacation that Rick Lupert took with his wife, Addie,
and four year old son to Washington D.C., and other nearby historical
sites in the Mid Atlantic states. Nudity just doesn't seem
appropriate, even if there is a lot of potty type humor, and a few
descriptions of actual bathrooms. In my defense there are a lot of
body references, and one wish for nudity in Lupert's delightfully
droll observational poetic voice.
Age Test with Rick Lupert
Do you feel your age?
asks one man. So I
take my hands and touch
different parts of my body,
pause to consider, then
answer.
No, about ten years younger
which gives me an idea for a
new kind of Guess
Your Age booth.
With
section headings like "we arrive in
Washington D.C. and do things which are documented on the following
pages," brilliantly concise, laugh out
loud pieces such as:
Children,
Don’t Read This
I
misread a sign that says Gusty Winds Area
as
Guilty Winds Area and think
My
God, who did they blow now?
Lupert
captures the associative absurdity of life as an adult, while
flawlessly capturing the whimsical honesty of the inner smart ass
child that never really dies in those of us who can keep from
willingly jamming sticks up back door orifices.
Although
most of the poems are short, and a few are only one line, there are
longer pieces such as the fourteen stanza, At
the Air and Space Museum,
itself a microcosm of the experience of the reading of the rest of
the book, with each verse a complete short poem in itself.
If
you can't already tell, I love the book. Rick Lupert has such a
distinct voice, and since I've seen and heard him read his work live,
I could hear his voice in my head as I read. As a work of poetry, The
Gettysburg Undress is
highly successful, and as a piece of humorously honest travel
writing, it far surpasses the popular prose author, Bill Bryson.
Somehow
I turned very serious. I guess that can happen when one wears pants.
Perhaps I should have at least gone braless. But now that this review
is done, I can go disrobe. Although I do need to go to the library.
Perhaps I should wait until later, so I don't get arrested.
The
Gettysburg Undress, poems by Rick Lupert, copyright
2014, Rothco Press (http://www.rothcopress.com),
ISBN-10: 1941519091, ISBN-13: 941519-09-7, 212 pages, $ 19.95
article content © 2015 annette sugden
poetic content © 2015 rick lupert