jethrien

Title: All Time Acceptable
Author: Spring Berman
Genre: Poetry
Thingummies: 5

Synopsis: A collection of poetry about life, philosophy, math, Beanie Babies, and autonomous underwater gliders.

Thoughts: I’m going to say right up front that the author is a long-time friend, and so this review can be considered biased.

Still, this is a remarkable collection of poems, and while I’m hardly impartial, I’m also hardly alone in the opinion. The poet was a student of Paul Muldoon and has been published in the Paris Review, so I’m not the only one with a high opinion of her writing.

There’s some gorgeous language here. From “The Autonomous Underwater Gliders”: “the eidolon an ailing eigenvalue, the aegis/most aesthetic as a gradient in space—". Also humor: "My friends, before we wheel/out the most staggering invention of all time/and the desserts".

Many of the poems are about math or Berman's own field of mechanical engineering. There's the cold implacability of "Battle Cry of the Engineer" and the poignancy of "The professor emeritus of mathematics, leaning into the slow wheel of dawn until the sparrows stop". But there's also the rather charming horror of "After Watching The Matrix: The Moviegoer at 3AM" (clearly the author was not a big fan of the movie) and the equally chilling horror of "Beanie Baby Lullabye".

It's a lovely little collection, well worth repeated visits, whether or not you're familiar with Riemann spheres.