Rise, Fall and Acceptance. Poems by Patrick Carrington. ( Main Street Rag Publishing. Charlotte, North Carolina. 28227. http://www.mainstreetrag.com ) $12.
“The Main Street Rag,” the literary journal and its book publishing arm have been around for about a decade and both have a fine rep. in the world of the small press. I was in one of the seminal issues of Main St. and I have followed how well they have progressed since…not to belittle my work, thank you!
The latest release by Main St. is a collection of poetry by Patrick Carrington: “Rise, Fall and Acceptance.” Carrington’s poems are narrative with well-studied descriptive language, and tightly conceived.
In the poem: “Across Grand Central,” the poet captures what the enigma of a beautiful woman can do to a man.
“She emptied the huge station,
made a crowded room vacant
and small with her grace.
People were recast as ghosts,
dim steps dyed bright as she walked
through a breeze in halo, creating
her own light and wind…
There were things I needed to say
then. Invitations to extend, offers
of coffee and wine, a quiet meal
under small flames…
Do I detect the influence of Lord Byron here? Perhaps so.
And in “Almost a Savior” Carrington paints a detailed portrait of a downtrodden mill worker with a font of hard-earned wisdom and sensitivity:
“Most of all I remember the weight, his
thudding football at night when he came home
from Bethlehem. His boots bought factory iron
with them. And the bronze bubbles of the smelt,
the ash on his whiskers, added the dark gravity
to his face. A circle of white where a hardhat
protected mind and kept skin pure made him look
like his two-tone Chevy rotting in the yard…”
This is Carrington’s first poetry collection. I am anxiously awaiting more.
Recommended.
Doug Holder/ Ibbetson Update/ Somerville, Mass./ Dec. 2006
