"Aspects Long Forgotten" by Jack Huber
(review written March 11th, 2010)

Jack Huber’s fifth book, Aspects Long Forgotten, is the perfect marriage of travelogue and high art. In it, he demonstrates that poetry, when written well, is a most sophisticated and evocative form of expression, and that photographs may speak as much by implication as by explicit detail.

He begins with an exhaustive explanation of poetic form and meter. It is an invaluable resource for new and seasoned poets alike, and enhances the experience that follows.

In the opening piece, entitled Graveyards of the Past, the photograph is of a long abandoned gas station, overgrown with bright green foliage. The poem is driven by that powerful irony:

Replacements serve us humans well,
each polishing the last,
the obsolete are left to dwell
in graveyards of the past.

The running thread here is contrast; the reader gets a vivid sense of America as it was, and as it is. But this is no lament, as this collection is flavored with romance, empathy, and genuine patriotism. Jack is simply a seasoned traveler of time and space, and has extended a gracious invitation to join him.

He continues with uniquely American themes: The Revolution in Cannons Silent, Baseball In Dodger Blue, The Old West in Floozies. In The Oz, wine revives a town. In The Cowtown Bachelor, local ladies vie for attention. Horizon Beckons is a playful pioneer piece with a lighthearted, modern twist:

The rat race slowly fading with a sigh,
I pray my practice runs had been enough,
and judge the risk of tempests in July.

All are accompanied by stirring photographs which could easily stand on their own, but instead serve as very effective jumping off points for dreams and illumination through verse.

In the English sonnet Photographer, Jack gives the reader a glimpse of a beautiful burden:

Bit off-road, a patch of mud,
a weathered bridge with morning frost,
traversing vestiges of flood,
your photo op will not be lost.

The Smiting, with its dramatic, split-second snapshot of lightning, is tempered with humor and wisdom:

A bolt descends from black of storm,
enforcing breach of trust,
we rarely know the smitten ones,
unless, alas, it’s us.

The closest Jack comes to being “dark” is The Brink, a confessional poem whose waterfall photograph suggests cleansing and redemption, and A Dreamt Relief, in which he shares:

I haven’t managed friendships very well,
and ego shares so much of useless blame,
past comrades speak in voices keen to tell
that guilt produced the man that I became.

But the companion picture of delicate, brilliantly colored glass flowers provides just the right amount of relief.

With the title piece, Aspects Long Forgotten, Jack closes this delightful collection in the same manner he began it. The photograph and poem transport the reader to another time, when life was simple and values were practical. Somehow, the picture of decay takes on a hue of hope, elegance, and dignity, and serves as an artful reminder that the past shapes the future, for better or worse, as determined by us.

With this latest work, Jack Huber has proven again that he is a distinctive presence in American literature and art.


Reviewed by Hugh Lemma
 

You can find this review on here at GotPoetry.com.