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Open Books: Event Archive
October 18, 2006 07:30 PM
DON BOGEN
Don Bogen's latest book, Luster ($13.95 Wesleyan), is a collection of
sure-handed poems, often concern ing social and physical machineries and the
part individuals play in them. His work is elevated by deft use of
tradi tional European formal elements. "Epistle to Dr. Ventro" is a 92-line
poem in iambic pentameter, made unobtru sive by its contemporary idiom, with
an "aa bb" near-rhyme scheme. "A tenement turns condo, news reports -- / and
tenants load their goods in shopping carts." Mr. Bogen considers broad
public issues with self-assurance. The book ends with a lyrical sequence,
born of his young child's fascination with machines, that moves from toy to
missile silo to medical prosthesis, to labor, culture, and the brain. It's a
giddy motion through associations, taken with methodical grace. We look
forward to hearing him give his musical poems voice.
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