Cleveland Anthology of Poets
Various

Secret Life of a Deranged Poet
Vladimir Swirynsky

By Alyce Wilson

A quirky combination of two books, The Cleveland Anthology of Poets also contains a full-fledged work by Vladimir Swirynsky, a collection of poems titled Secret Life of a Deranged Poet.

Swirynsky's poems are deeply personal reminiscences of the everyday minutiae of life. Often, this reads like a laundry list of personal experiences, as in his personal essay, "The Brookside Park Incident", a rambling slice of life more than a story.

At his best, Swirynsky uses detail to add texture to a deeper sentiment, such as mourning a departed friend and fellow poet, in "d.a. levy":

Let's return to the good old days of the
Hough riots. We can throw a party,
invite the police
The mayor can show off by
setting his hair on fire again,
d.a. levy you and I are lines in the city,
mischief-makers

He makes good use of detail, as well, in "Sugarcoated", a tender reminiscence of unrequited love:

Even your journal makes mention of a forbidden city,
a Mayan reference to the end of the world
The universe is already in shambles
The blizzard sugar coated, a backwash of mischief
It's now or never

Swirynsky would do best to remember, no matter how far he rambles, to always bring his poems back to their emotional heart.

The second half of the book is an anthology of Cleveland area poets, who range in style and subject matter. Some poems don't work as well, such as several pages of haiku which, despite their short length, waste verbiage.

Still, there are gems, such as Frank Varela's meditation on a spider, "Tarantula", a "black fist of onyx" imbued with almost mystical qualities as Varela traces his origins to "Montezuma's final words" and thence to the beginning of time, "when only God / spoke the language / of spiders".

In "Last Days at LTV — A Reflection", Swirynsky writes about a transcendent moment between office workers, captivated by the remarkable flight of a paper airplane.

In the poem "The Good Kiss", George Bilgere writes tenderly about trying to heal old wounds through love. "Summertime" by Mary Weems captures the exuberant rebellion of a man shimmying up a flagpole. And Dan Rouke's "There Ain't No Light Bulb Going on Over Vanna's Head" is an alphabet poem full of word play, with lines like "There is no i in superego" and "There is no j in Narcotics Anonymous".

Overall, the book is an interesting sampler of work by Cleveland poets. The main drawback is the publishing job itself, which is very amateurish, with varying fonts and ink shades. What's worse, the anthology fails to list the poet's names along with the poem titles, so that the reader must continually flip back to the index to find out who wrote each work. This printing was a limited edition, but if they choose to reprint it, they should pay more attention to presentation.

Deep Cleveland Press (ISBN: 1-881786-45-5)