Review: A Good Day (A Review Of seriously! By John Yamrus)

By Peter Mladinic

 

This review’s title comes from the last lines in John Yamrus’s new book seriously!: “ it was / a very good day.” “getting dressed” is the first poem. It’s as if a person got up and got dressed and went out to meet the day, to deal with whatever they might encounter—“it” being this collection of poems crafted by a writer whom other writers have called “the master of minimalism.” In seriously! Yamrus is at the top of his less-means-more minimalist game. His poems are like moments in a day, and the moments are like mirrors in which readers see themselves. Three aspects of Yamrus’s minimalism are: his use of pronouns allows him to “hold back;” his emphatic tone evokes expansiveness; and his allusions don’t have to be “looked up.” All the reader needs to know is there on the page.

No writer uses pronouns better than John Yamrus, and they allow him to withhold things. One rule is: tell your reader only what they need to know, and what they’d have no other way of knowing without you having told them. Following this rule comes naturally to this poet. “you mean you just split? took off?” includes an active listener, who has asked the “you” in the title its question. And then asks another question, so the poem has dialogue:

 

sure,

the place is small

and there’s no room for anything,

 

but

it’s mine 

and that’s all i care about.

 

but,

what about Sandy?

 

never mind her.

 

Readers are told all they need to know; they can “fill in the blanks” about the rift between the I in the poem and Sandy, and consider the importance of the question about her to get an overall appreciation of the poem. The “split” was result of little things adding up, or one big thing, or an argument that constituted “the final straw.” The I makes the reader wonder. The poet makes the reader as much a part of the poem as the two people in it.

Yamrus simultaneously withholds and lets out. His emphatic tone allows his seemingly tight-lipped speaker to let go, express emotion, be “only human.” Here is the second half of “she cut her hair,”:

 

the way 

she looked at it,

it was a good first step

away from Whitaker…that son of a bitch.

 

he

never 

in a million years

should have done what he did.

 

Consider how deflated the poem would be without its next-to-last line, and without its emotive appositive for Whitaker. Consider also the speaker leaves readers “dying” to know what Whitaker did that upset her. And consider what’s not in the quoted passage: she “changed her / name to Tawny O’ Dell.” Must readers know that?  Absolutely!

Sometimes a reader will be reading a poem and come to allusion they need to look up, to “go outside the poem” to see what’s going on in it.  Yamrus never makes this need for a supplementary text necessary. It’s all there, on the page. “in 1865” alludes to 

“the steamship Sultana,” “Andersonville Prison,” and two people: “Abraham Arkansas Fogelsong” and “Eppenetus McIntosh.” Whether they are “real people” or not is not the point. They are true-to-life in the poem, Fogelsong the rescuer and McIntosh, the protagonist in this minimal narrative, the rescued. “a boiler on / the ship blew up.” Here is the poem’s conclusion: 

 

more 

than 1, 200

died in the water that day.

 

not Eppenetus.

 

he

was saved 

from drowning 

and dragged to shore

by Abraham Arkansas Fogelsong.

 

imagine that.

 

Since this tragedy happened “outside Memphis” readers know, or rightfully assume it happened on the Mississippi River. But that’s not in the poem, nor should it be. The poet tells all that readers need to know about this horrific accident and Eppenetus’s history and his rather miraculous survival. Again, readers see Yamrus’s skill with pronouns. “imagine that” are two words his readers must know for the full effect of this poem. Just consider what the poem would be without them.

This collection is rife with flourishes that lend credence to the term “master of minimalism.” There are many good stories in these poems. One involves selling lightbulbs over the phone, and two involve childhood memories of the poet and his sister. These three are among the best, as is the sensual love poem “i think,” a poem about and for John Yamrus’s wife, Cathy.  These are among the best, but, every poem is “on the mark.” There’s no padding. Every syllable, every line is put to good use. As a collection, the poems are like events in the course of a day. To come full circle, a man plays classical music, Stravinsky, loudly, which bothers his neighbor, who calls the cops. They can’t do anything because the music is not disturbing the peace by keeping people awake at night.

 

so he played it even louder.

 

the walls shook.

 

it was

a very good day.

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Mladinic's most recent book, The Whitestone Bridge, is available from Anxiety Press. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico.