POETRY

SOME WORDS by William Bronk (Asphodel Press/Moyer Limited: $9.95; 72 pp.) . Since William Bronk does a lot of summing up in his poems, it seems fair to say that this particular poem sums up William Bronk: It’s called “HardLine.” “Even defeated by it, good may surpass / evil. No matter, both may offer delight./ Something’s unconcerned by either one.” And yet, and yet, there are so many places in Bronk’s poetry where the easy answer is ridiculed, and so many poems--”These constructs,” “Representations,” “Reality of Mind,” “As if”--that question what we think we know, and the things we divert ourselves with. His poems, on average around three lines, are like containers; they make longer poems seem like someone who talks too much--sure to get sloppy and out of control. In such brevity, one looks for truth, but when Bronk is too authoritative he sounds very much like a Lutheran minister. “Our freedom is to pretend,” Bronk writes in a poem called “Freedom,” and one wishes that now and then he would pretend, let some colors or objects enter the poems; but then, he has taken this style, these proverbs for his own. They just do not surprise. They are all of a piece.

Placement, by William Bronk

Here? Yes. But not here .