A review of my book Dream Haiku: Poems from Nights and Naps in The Portland Phoenix newspaper.

Love poetry but lack the hours the digest it? Jon Petruschke’s new self-published collection Dream Haiku has plenty of bite-sized nuggets of wit and wisdom to hold you over. The Munjoy Hill writer offers 200 insights on the universal subjects of unity (“She’s convinced / my two-word haiku is / a rant about her.”), alienness (“The most boring guy / offers to lend me / his bathing suit.”), self-reflection (“Mom frowns reading my / diary, but most of it’s / what I’d wished I’d done.”), politics (“Military’s / new policy - / Do tell, do tell.”), and irreverence (“Try getting out of / boxing match, by refusing / to put down juice glass.”) As you can tell, Petruschke wisely strays from the 5-7-5 form in deference to the poem; while this may be more a collection of aphorisms, purists step down: there are more than enough passages here to satisfy the broadside of a fridge.

Read more: http://portland.thephoenix.com/arts/158113-lips-dont-lie/#ixzz37MijS5tq