Drastic Dislocations
Barry Wallenstein
NYQ Books
ISBN: 978-1-935520-43-6

Reviewer: Emilia Fuentes Grant


          Barry Wallenstein’s Drastic Dislocations offers a reader an intimate, sincere, and thoughtful journey. The collection, spanning thirty-three years’ worth of work, opens with an author’s note in which Wallenstein describes his early love for verse, recalling his first discovery of its emotive potential or, in his words, its ability to “express emotional truth.” He tells of a lifelong commitment to the study and practice of poetry and a singular pursuit of “the real thing.” Drastic Dislocations is a product of that pursuit, practice, and study. The poems within it search for truth in every experience.

          Consider one of Wallenstein’s early poems, “The City Rat,”first published in 1982.

The rat frightens even
the rails underground
at 59^th and Lex.

No one wants to see it,
yet its speed
its hurry out of sight
chills the spine.

Close up, dead or alive,
the smell will stop your breath.

Poor rat, so ugly,
so full of evil promises,
if fools sing your praises,
I’m one....

          Wallenstein finds beauty and vibrancy in an ordinary moment, in an everyday place, with common vermin as his subject. The rat, normally repulsive, is rendered perfect and compelling through the lens of the poem. Its scratching secrecy is mysterious, even haunting, and Wallenstein’s language imbues it with an undeniable power. The rat strikes fear in the hearts of onlookers, even though the animal only does what it has always done. Ultimately, “The City Rat" raises questions about our perceptions of life and our definitions of greatness.

          Wallenstein’s poetry is often centered on a single object or moment in time—frequently a focus of the poet’s contemplation—the search for some kind of truth always a primary motivation.

Were I not part of us
how carefully I would point us
out: you on the telephone
and him on a lounge a hundred miles away.
I’d be jealous of both—you breaking the rules
and his complicity.
But I’m here, in front of you
involved, as it were,
in the evening;
my arms around your knees
my head for you to hold or consider....

                    (“Perspective”)

          “Were I not part of us,” Wallenstein writes, bringing the pain of the moment into clarity: the speaker on his knees, turning his cheek. The hypothetical statement sets a dramatic contrast with reality, invokes a feeling of indecision, a feeling reminiscent of teetering on some precipice. Wallenstein echoes this achievement in the final two lines of the above-referenced poem.

If I were not part of us
I’d imagine sanctions and flight.

          The succinct phrasing creates an intense mood of restraint. Wallenstein avoids effusive language. Love, hate, betrayal, lust, the words hover in the mind of the reader, more alive in the imagination than in print. The poem could easily employ gushing phrases to capture the emotion of its subjects, but Wallenstein chooses not to write that poem. He pushes beyond the peripheral emotion. In “Perspective,” we see practiced control and careful consideration of a moment resulting in a poem that transcends its original subject of adultery and guilt. Ultimately, the poem highlights the difficult balance of love and sex and how each, out of balance with the other, can skew our perceptions.

          The same restraint, focus on detail, and deliberate deconstruction of the human experience carry over into the last section of the book, which includes Wallenstein’s most recent work and the source of the book’s title: Drastic Dislocations.

          Consider “A Man,” which captures the essence of a particular father.

In 1926, my father drove through the city
via the transverse from west to east
sitting straight on a wooden cart
drawn by a horse.
There was a blizzard that day
and the way was slow
and the axle broke
and he fixed it with his hands—chafed and bleeding

          This father is mythic, a tall tale; his strength is without equal, his determination is unfathomable—and then he bleeds. Wallenstein artfully captures the hero-father, a mythic man made better, more complete and believable, via his humanity.

          The language of the poem is at first minimal, every word tight and hard like a muscle, the harsh consonants in “traverse,” “blizzard,” and “axle” exemplifying the man and the situation. Then, in the second half of the piece, the tension releases. Upright, solid phrases give way to lingering lines and soft sounds, suggesting a gentler side of the man.

...He took us to it scrambling along the way
and when we fell from weariness, he carried us there,
sat us down, kissed our eyes,
and told us how to be fond of fortune’s excess.  

          “The Man”brings to light the contrasts within one man’s character, necessary as they are confounding. The father is flawed, and yet he is a champion in the eyes of his children. This duality renders him as dynamically human—the portrait rings remarkably true to life.         

          Wallenstein’s ability to find profound truth in the minutest details is prevalent throughout Drastic Dislocations. Even in the final pages, as the poet revels in the musicality and rhythms of jazz, he never abandons his commitment to the unsung elements of life.

One of the sorriest individuals
to ever scrape leather on Joy St.,
was a man named Jack the Hat,

“one of the hippest cats...”

a fellow loiterer once said; but
the truth, as always, was different:
he had long-range eyes,

looking over into the next town
or valley all the time....

             (“Jack the Hat”)

          The poem is a parable framed in the rhythm of jazz, a warning from a seasoned poet: don’t overlook “the real thing.” When Jack the Hat meets with a bad end, it’s the result of his “long-range eyes,” his oversight of the good things right in front of him.

          Wallenstein shares a catalogue of poems in Drastic Dislocations. Poetry from seven different works blend to create a book much like a patchwork quilt. Swatches of color in various shapes and shades, borrowed from the fabric of larger pieces, has been thoughtfully stitched together to form something altogether new, and, perhaps, better.