Overview

Stephen M. Honig's seventh book of poetry spans the last days of the COVID inconvenience and drifts unwillingly into the malaise we call life. There is something here for every fear: ageing, love and its loss, society and its angst, a planet dying as its people die, promise and disappointment of seasons, and numerous unrequited evils.The author, Board Member of New England Poetry Club, claims his affair with poetry began with his mother, a farm girl who ran away to find life in the Big City but who held to her spunk and to her allegiance to Nineteenth Century American literature.Aged 82 at date of this publication, the author hopes to survive long enough to fill more books with poetry; he believes that his remaining years may be sufficient as only the good die young...

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Reviews

Stephen M. Honing insists on the large questions: what is right? What is a meaningful action? Who is the self, asking? At one pole, Honig seems on a quest for identification, frequently with non-human beings: his dog, bees, a coyote. He expresses a kind of self-confirmation in the world beyond sentient beings, as in ""Old Man and the Beach"" and ""Spring Poem,"" the latter with its complex confession: ""I will walk today, first time since late September / with jacket open, a smile on my face through reflex / I cannot quell."" He provides moments of acute description, such as ""mid-May and its subtle clarinet"" (""Come What May"") or ""Old City Hall, white as whitewash on the side of a slave shack"" (""Mardi Gras""). These facets suggest centeredness, that here a person speaks who understands unity. At the same time, life's basic unknowability can break down to an unshakable sense of the absurd. Take his remark in ""The 11-18-22 Report"" ""it was once bemoaned that the center may not hold / this is not an understandable bemoaning / when there is no center but only flanges."" He relieves us with humor (""Kitchen,"" ""Top One Percent"") while holding ""chagrin and terror"" (""Have You Time For a Chat?""). His outrage stands next to a deep involvement in the things of this world. Through these contradictions, we come to realize that insisting on final answers is of slight value, compared with asking the right questions. As he observes when comparing ""Eclipses"" with life itself, ""I hope not to be blinded by trying to see / either phenomenon too clearly.""-David P. MillerAuthor of Bend in the Stair and Sprawled AsleepOne could say this collection of poetry is like the deep, dark environs of the 'Yeshiva of the Soul.' I can see the poet davening- deep in meditation about the joys and indignities of living a long life. The poet brings a gimlet eye to the transient nature of love, the slow breakdown of elderly bodies, as observed under the harsh light of an unforgiving sun, and other poignant themes. The poet does not take himself too seriously, as he uses ample doses of gallows humor to blunt the bitch slap of some of his more unflinching observations. This is a work that is packed with insight from a man who hasn't lived the 'unexamined life'-it is well contemplated, and it will resonate with many."" -Doug HolderFormer Co-President of the New England Poetry Club, Publisher of the Ibbetson Street Press

Author Information

Stephen M. Honig is a practicing corporate attorney in Boston, Massachusetts. He is a Board Member of the New England Poetry Club, hosts poetry readings on behalf of the Club, is himself a reader of his poetry in various venues, and has often been published in Ibbetson Street (the poetry magazine of Ibbetson Press based in Somerville, Massachusetts). He has published six collections of poetry: ""Messing Around with Words"", ""Rail Head"", ""Obligatory COVID Chapbook"", ""Laertes in America - Collected Poetry 2018-2020"", ""Burn-Out"" and ""Parallel Universes"". Also published are a collection of short stories: ""Noir Ain't the Half of It"", and an adventure novel: ""The Event"". The author claims his affair with poetry began with his mother, a farm girl who ran away to find life in the Big City but who held to her spunk and to her allegiance to Nineteenth Century American literature.A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, Mr. Honig lives with his wife, Laura Unflat, in Newton, Massachusetts. Among his four children and two grandchildren, only one shows a poetic avocation, although all six have poetic dispositions.Aged 82 at date of this publication, the author hopes to survive long enough to fill more books with poetry; he believes that his remaining years may be sufficient as only the good die young..

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