Walking the Black Cat

Charles Simic's "Walking The Black Cat" is hard evidence that the sarcastic, irreverent and consciousness bending spirit of surrealism is alive and well. Simic's tone is flippant and unmistakably poetic; he can take the most ordinary situation and make a slick, subtle metaphysical comment about it ("On the Sagging Porch" is one of the best examples of this, as he takes a local president of the SPCA in a few beautiful stanzas makes Judas out of him). In fact he seems to have a better grasp of what the oft used and abused word "surreal" means then a lot of the original surrealists themselves; these poems are not word games or pretty images, but both employed into substantive, moving poetry that sticks to the mind. I think this collection as much as "The World Doesn't End" deserved the Pulitzer Prize. Anyone who loves challenging, consciousness altering poetry will become a devotee of Simic.

Charles Simic, Walking the Black Cat (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1996)Pulitzer Prizewinning author Charles Simic is to dada what Clayton Eshleman is to surrealism; he's pretty much the sole light keeping it alive in the world of poetry in the present day. Simic, a hardcore imagist, is wonderfully precise in his use of concrete detail, which he then pulls completely out of the realm of reality by juxtaposing things which have no business being next to one another. Walking the Black Cat, a finalist for the National Book Award, is often considered one of Simic's finest works, and justly. There is much here to be enjoyed, mulled over, surprised at, and delighted with, and very little that dips below the level of brilliant. If you've never discovered the Joy of Simic, this is a fantastic place to start. ****

Blue collar poetry. Subtle and haunting, Charles Simic sets out, one rainy, Sunday afternoon, to take the innards out of life, and play with them as a child would play with an Erector Set. Very satisfying and original