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“Stop and smell the
sonnets…”
An Eerie Calm Before the Night by Jack Huber elegantly juxtaposes nature
photography with the age-old sonnet format
It is difficult not to gain a new appreciation for the lost art of the
sonnet when perusing Jack Huber’s An Eerie Calm Before the Night, a
collection of some twenty sonnets. However, the underlying message is
cannot be ignored: Forget the hectic world and stop and smell the roses,
or in this case, the sonnets. Huber elegantly juxtaposes an image from
his awe-inspiring album of nature photography with a single sonnet (or
is it the other way around?) and effectively urges each of us to
appreciate the world around us.
The stand out entry is the title poem, which also serves as a call to
action. For those of us overwhelmed with balancing work, family, and
just the hustle of everyday life, you certainly and undeniably
understand the importance of slowing things down and finding tranquility
in a world seemingly gone mad. “An Eerie Calm Before the Night” is set
against a beautiful photo of a sunset over western New York’s Chautauqua
Lake, and Huber transports you there. “The sun relaxes as it sets…,” the
sonnet begins, “winds die down, again you feel… that eerie calm, I’ve
come to know… just the chaos letting go.” Rhythmic, yet smooth, “Eerie”
is anything but creepy- it’s normalcy.
Similarly-themed is the opening sonnet “The World Is There,” where Huber
once again tells us that the beauty of nature is here “for humans to
behold,” and politely shakes a finger at a society too often bent on the
status quo of things. In “Tranquility,” an Italian sonnet, one wonders
if its message criticizing selfishness and not getting along is not one
uttered much too late. Its brother sonnet, “Economic Circus” is simply
apropos given America’s deep economic woes.
The haunting “Every Day” is seemingly the most biographical or
autobiographical of the group where Huber finally seems to tear down the
emotional wall and let us see inside. That said, the only downside of
the collection of sonnets is that all too often Huber hides behind the
restrictive sonnet format versus letting us feel some true emotion. Some
of the sonnets are just too matter-of-fact to be enjoyed. Case-in-point,
the self indulgent “My Team,” and the superfluous conquering fear sonnet
that is “Halfway.”
Those minor complaints aside, An Eerie Calm Before the Night offers
charming photography and elegant sonnets mightily serving as the caption
for each picture.
-Review by Randy Carlton Hunsucker, Mount Airy, North Carolina.
Hunsucker is author of the science fiction thriller, “Midniite Prizm,”
and the collection of poems, “Poetry 5.0”. |
