New and Selected Poems, 1956-1996. - book reviews

Humanist, March-April, 1998 by Ed Doerr

By any standard, Philip Appleman -- one of the few contemporary poets I really enjoy reading -- has had a most interesting even extraordinary life. After serving in the Air Corps in World War II and then in the merchant marine, he did graduate work in France, earned a Ph.D., and went on to a distinguished teaching career at Indiana University and elsewhere.

Along the way, he published three novels, including Apes and Angels (1989), which depicted life in an Indiana town in the area where former Vice-President Dan Quayle grew up; several nonfiction books, including the excellent Norton Critical Edition Darwin and two on the population growth problem; and seven acclaimed books of poetry. Among the many honors he has received is the American Humanist Association's 1994 Humanist Arts Award.

New and Selected Poems brings together selections from Appleman's previous work and adds fourteen new poems. Unlike many late-twentieth-century poets, Appleman is clear, unaffected, and accessible. His range is uncommonly broad, covering much of the world and vast spans of time. Marked by humor and striking images, his work covers life, death, war, violence, beauty, love, religion, science, and more.

Consider, for example, this take-off on the famous Joyce Kilmer poem from Appleman's 1991 collection on religion, Let There Be Light:

I think that I shall never see

a poem as ugly as a flea,

a flea whose hungry mouth is

pressed

against a buttock or a breast,

a flea that spreads disease all day

and lifts its little claws to prey:

poems are made by you and me,

but only God can make a flea....

The following portion of "Gertrude," also originally published in Let There Be Light, is dedicated to his mother:

I wish that all the people

who peddle God

could watch my mother die:

could see the shin and

gristle weighing only

seventy-nine, every stubborn

pound of flesh a small

death.

I wish the people who peddle God

could see her young,

lovely in gardens and

beautiful in kitchens, and could

watch

the hand of God slowly

twisting her knees and fingers

till they gnarled and knotted,

settling in

for thirty years of pain....

Excerpts can only hint at the richness, power, and beauty of Appleman's poetry. New and Selected Poems is a great work, even for people who have never really cared for poetry.

Edd Doerr, president of the American Humanist Association, has published two books of poetry and is completing a third.