Glen River's Chapbook         Words Alone         Eddition 3         Review

In Words Alone, edition 3, Poetry by Glen River, The reader can expect the unexpected. River’s craft is intelligent, evocative and most importantly, original. In Yellow Jacket(The Ancient Legend), River sustains the euphemism he’d created of the soldier and “his passion” which “would still drive him to use his sword.” And further: “Killing became his solution for everything.” River continues with unsettling implication and innuendo of domestic unrest, also possibly recalling the military conflict in the Middle East and Afghanistan: “Smoke them out.” “Be sure to get the exact chemical designed for their destruction.” These lines and images are so very topical with regard to human warfare and ecological destruction. This is an extremely important poem. The subtle theme of human bloodlust, disrespect for all life and struggle rings as loud as the scream of mortar rounds and anti-war demonstrators. “Nature is superior, and we are the apprentice.” Don’t you remember how Nature took away our preeminence and made us small…” is a line that serves not only as a portended hind-sight but, hopefully a reminder to the audience of the power of Nature and the action and reaction of humankind. With Talking to God--River is at his highest philosophical prowess first demonstrated in the sophisticated yet simple language of Wolf In Shepard’s Clothing-- the first poem in the collection. This poem is extremely Buddhist and Taoist but more so an amazing reminder of Self and the place of a human being in society, nature, and human ego. “God is bar-coding our torment, encoding future generations with genetic guilt,” has got to be one of the most Orwellian, Huxleyian, and impressive lines this reviewer has both heard and read in modern poetry! Lingo-- is a an exquisite and seemingly personal poem that grows into what feels like a mantra by its end, which is unexpected. This poem’s opening line should be quoted by college students across the country! During World War II, Claude McKay’s poem: If We Must Die was read to the British citizens, by Winston Churchill and into the Congressional Record, by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. for the purpose of a rallying cry. If one is familiar with the McKay poem, and happens to read The Strongest Man, by Glen River, it will be easy to see how poets have been misunderstood for generations by the masses and the elites. In this poem, one of the shortest and by far, among the most powerful in the chapbook, it is easy to see that a copy of this compact collection of poetry should be sent to each US serviceman and woman stationed in the Middle East, during these times of war and unpredictability. -Robert Milby March 26, 2004 © 2004 Glen River Publications ~ Reprint permission is granted to members of the press.