Behind the Steel: One Life-Five Epochs

Book Information:
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MWSA Review

Author Joe Carvalko tells his readers that Behind the Steel: One Life—Five Epochs “takes them on a journey through Twentieth Century America, its cities, its wars, the western prairies, and the poet’s encounter with death, losses of the heart, and old age, when the past stands still and time quickens…” As someone who struggles with the genre of poetry, there were some of Mr. Carvalko’s poems that left me thinking, but others truly caught my attention and had a loud and clear message.

The poem “Naught, Zero, A Cipher” tells the story of beginning from naught, zero, a cipher, children becoming what they do as a result of events, actions and reactions, “and the possibility exists that through the treacheries of war, a being might not fully form, or once formed can be deformed; and finally evaporated into naught, zero, a cipher.” It is a “full-circle” poem that makes readers think about their own journeys.

“Railway Station” brings about the picture of what the station remembers about the “boys turned men who return on rails.” Truly poignant. It took this reader there, imagining sitting on a bench watching from then to now, those who have graced its doors.

With few words, “Road to Camp 5” paints a picture for the reader. Sometimes I find it amazing how poets can pen such few words and a picture is created…vivid and clear. The picture isn’t always pretty, as in this poem, but it definitely tells the story that Mr. Carvalko painted with words.

I especially enjoyed “Last Trip to the V.A.” and “Plans for Old Age.” As a reader, I would have appreciated some prose to help me along on the poetic journey, but that’s just me. I’m learning to appreciate the poets among us.

 

Reviewed by: Joyce Gilmour (2015)


Author's Summary

Behind the Steel, a book of poetry, takes the reader through a century filled with the experiences of people who toiled in the inner cities, on vast prairies, and who came to know the zones of war, and offers a perspective that will resonate with anyone who thinks hard about where we came from and for what purpose. Carvalko’s work deals with death, loses of the heart, and old age, when the past stands still and time quickens, when the echoes of the past ricochet and scatter into pure energy. He casts a sharp eye into a search for meaning through action, but discovers that only in solitude does he find answers, albeit conditional, bowing to the forces beyond his sensibilities, to the limits of a self-imposed blindness, to the incomprehensibly complicated and absurd events that occur in our midst, yet exceed the human capacity for reason, moral belief and even suffering.

 

Author(s) Mentioned: 
Carvalko, Joe
Reviewer: 
Gilmour, Joyce
Work Type: