The Devil Winds and Other Fiction: Behind the Lime Kilns, Poems 2, by Jim Bennett

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Behind the Lime Kilns, Poems 2, by Jim Bennett

Almost a year ago, on November 28, 2013, I featured the Canadian poet Jim Bennett, and then began to read and review his work. For some reason, I read his volumes in reverse order from Poems 5 downward (possibly my pithy nod to controversy).

Now, that I arrived at Behind the Lime Kilns, Poems 2, I realize how much had changed over the course of this journey. Regressing, as you will, I find this earlier work gentler, albeit still suggestive–whereas the later volumes show a decidedly harsher side of dreams, of life itself.

What made this poet shed his inhibition? What emboldened him to share? Whatever it was, it works for Bennett and his poetry.

In his foreword to Behind the Lime Kilns, Poems 2, Bennett states: “Poetry is about Truth.”

Indeed. Plus, I think, it is about feelings, and awe; the awe I feel when I come across true poetry. Not words that rhyme in silly cadence, spouting mundane happenings (we’ve all done that); but poems that throng about your very soul, rattle your conscience, stab at your heart. Such is the poetry of Jim Bennett.

Origami, the first poem in Behind the Lime Kilns, is—to those who know, or those who have refused to forget—deliciously suggestive in its simplicity (and this poet definitely has not forgotten). Power Hits indeed hits hard those who are alone, whereas Keyboard and Toothsome Wishes lifts the corner on a bit of wicked humor as, at last, the theme poem Behind the Lime Kilns causes you to breath, “Oh, no.”

Jim Bennett’s later books may be more demanding, more sophisticated if you will, but all five volumes should go down in the annals of True Poetry. More importantly, they should be read, and savored, to make you feel that “Poetry is about Truth.”