I recently received a letter from poet Jack Phillips Lowe, author of Middle Island Press titles Cold Case Cowboys and Jupiter Works on Commission, among several others by this dedicated writer. Attached to his letter was a photocopy of a few pages from Poets International, a print publication from India which published a review of Lowe’s Cold Case Cowboys written by Toledo, Ohio reviewer Teresinka Pereira. Poets are always elated when their works are reviewed; and overseas reviews, whether in print or online, are especially gratifying.
For copyright reasons I cannot scan the pages, but I’ll summarize:
Ms. Pereira seeks to review the work of American poets with truly enjoyable, non-angsty, out-of-the-ordinary subjects, so she was happy to order a copy of Cold Case Cowboys. One of her favorite poems therein is “Think Highly” from which she quoted (in prose formatting), “Prayer tower, I answered him, is a convenient term. I meant this to be a place for free-ranging introspective thought of every creed and idiom…” She also quoted from (my personal favorite) “Cured”: “After the fifth time, I quit seeing the doctor. If my issues were dull enough to lull him to sleep, I figured I must be cured.” Then she commented on another: “The poem ‘Him Alone’ is the most original reference of the 9-11-2001 terrorist attack of the Twin Towers in New York. He remembers (or read…) that ‘in 1974, a French daredevil crossed a tightrope that had been stretched between the Twin Towers,’ and wondered how the acrobat he calls ‘Bastard’ felt when the towers were destroyed… ‘He might have mourned the loss of two giants he’d come to know intimately as they performed the stunt of the century together. And perhaps he mourned the fact that no one would be able to recall their outstanding achievement without it being shrouded in gloom.'”
Pereira, as many readers, appreciates her ability to connect with Lowe’s many references to real-world characters such as J.D. Salinger, John Wayne, John Lennon and so on, which helps to paint clear mental images; as well as Lowe’s ability to make readers laugh, smirk, chuckle. She says, “He satirizes society and comes out clean. Readers always agree with him. I do. I could have written a poem like ‘A Damn Thing At All’ about the use of Twitter, YouTube, etc… His poems express my thoughts in ways I cannot explain.”
So all is well that concludes well!
Cold Case Cowboys and other titles by Jack Phillips Lowe can be purchased at Amazon.com. Ms. Pereira can be contacted at ptereira@buckeye-express.com.
Poetica~Place 