Poet: Tom Conroy

ISBN:  1598009133

Tom Conroy’s third collection of poems, Coming Down From Over There, once again renews his interaction with nature and his reconnection to humanity. Moreover, his recent book of poems evidence an unremitting, relentless attachment to image of things as they are, or perhaps might be, without delusions.

Without doubt, Coming Down From Over There has all the language dynamism of vintage Conroy, particularly his simplicity of imagery when he explores a particular theme or mood. His words resonate well after reading it for the umpteenth time. Words, images, and line breaks reverberate with vitality, even those about loss itself such as the Last Hike where Conroy recounts how a son spreads the ashes of his mother into a river stream. The last two stanzas remind us that we don’t need to comprehend the son’s distress to know when the lines of the poem ring true.

Conroy’s poems give meaning where there seemed before to be none such as the Spring Nap:

 Cold, wet wind on stream.

 Mayfly nymphs won’t shed their husks.

 Fly fisherman sleeps.

In addition, his poems show much hard work and a deep perception of his surroundings and the natural world. The language of his poems seems to be always striving to reach a communicable understanding of a world that is often misunderstood to many of us. This is particularly in evidence with LIFE IS HOW YOU FIND IT, where he writes about the dishwasher where there is nothing high tech for him to work with and where he must endure condescending bosses who are relentlessly berating him for the long breaks he takes. In another he bemoans:

Some are born

to callings that

no longer exist

Making it hard to reconcile; life,

love and pleasure. Still, it’s better than no purpose

at all.

Arthur was meant

to be a Shaman.

Too bad healing

today comes in

pill form.

that you swallow

at ten bucks

a pop.

As a collection, Coming Down From Over There more than satisfies with Conroy’s crafty talent of offering his readers sudden moments of sharp clarity and razor-sharp insights and revelations that would ordinarily be difficult to perceive without his prodding and language. Although initially his words may seem trivial, re-reading them reveals an unexpected depth and humbleness with their synchronized immediacy and apparent eternal authenticity.  There is also a profound spiritual tone to many of the poems found in the collection. Coming Down From Over There is bedside-table poetry at its best where we can reconnect to the deepest and best parts of ourselves particularly at the most crucial or difficult times in our lives.

The above review was contributed by: NORM GOLDMAN:  Retired Title Attorney: Editor & Publisher of Bookpleasures. Here are  Norm Goldman's Reviews 

To read Norm's Interview with Tom Conroy CLICK HERE