Jesus in the Ghost Room by Rusty Barnes

 

Jesus in the Ghost Room

by Rusty Barnes

Copyright © 2017 Rusty Barnes

Nixes Mate Books

Allston, MA

ISBN 978-0-9991882-7-9

Softbound, 63 pages, $9.95

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Rusty Barnes’ poetry is cold, hard, raw. That is exactly what makes it an engaging read. It is about Rusty Barnes … at times Rusty and his late father. Barnes is also warm, soft and polished. His poems are down-to-earth, easily accessible.

In “Arrow-Fishing” he recounts his days fishing in what was once fairly deep water and how animals get the best of the quarry he was after.

Arrow-Fishing

The pond has become marsh now

but when it was waist deep I would

go to the middle in the depths

of much to arrow-fish for the huge gold-

fish my landlord had stocked years

before. I remember brining the bow

to my eye and sighting like a gun7

along the top of my thumb the string

tense in my fingers and the feeling

as I Barnes f I were going under. I remember

overshooting as I adjusted my shot

for refraction. I didn’t make that one

but eventually the heard heart of the world

won out and the goldfish became bones

on the bank killed by coon or mink.

But I love the tense thrill of the shot still

I have only to close my eyes to recall.

As in his other poems, Barnes reflects on his past and in this poem, “Circus,” he recalls

some aspects of those days.

Circus

If the Ringling Brothers were alive today

they wouldn’t know how to begin.

Freak shows today are everywhere

if you know where to look,

there on the common field of life

with the tattooed and the pierced,

the extraordinarily hairy together

with the unfunny and the trolls

who try to ruin it for everyone who

is not so jaded. I can see the tents in

my mind, the huge spikes that serve

as pegs and the groups of rope fest=

ooned with elephant shit and stale popcorn.

It is pur magic and we only have so much.

What makes Rusty Barnes interesting is that many of us have, “been there, done that,” but have not seen it in the way Barnes portrays it in this book.

In “My Father’s Hip: 1972 Flood” Barnes provides insight into not only his childhood and tenderness toward his father, but his daughter as well. He recalls an important moment in his life despite the dangers he encountered.

One day the crick rose a couple feet

after three days steady rain that brought

logs ramming into rocks and a couple

dead dogs floating in the brown spume.

My dad lifted me up and brought me

to the very edge of the eroded banks

that with every rainstorm came just

a little closer to our house. I don’t recall

what he said to me but I felt safe next

to his gritty cheek and the typical cigarette.

Beside me my brother Joes jumped from foot

to foot excited as all hell to be a branch

in that raging water. He slipped down

the bank screaming but dad never lost

a beat still holding me he whipped around

and caught my brother by the back

out pretty heavily once he was safe

but sitting on his hip in the driving rain

I felt overcome by my smallness.

Like all kids I returned to the site

of the scene 30 years later, dipping my

young daughter’s feet in that same water.

These are examples of Barnes’s recollections of life. In particular his poetry recollects memories of his father, the death of his uncle and his leaning on his loving wife for support.

Barnes grew up in rural Appalachia. He weaves those years with his life in the Boston, MA area into a book of poetry that moves along at a rapid, always interesting pace,

with many poetic stories not soon forgotten.

_______________________________________________

Zvi A. Sesling, author of The Lynching of Leo Frank

and the forthcoming War Zones (Nixes Mate Books)

Publisher & Editor of Muddy River Poetry Review

and Editor of Bagel Bard Anthologies 7,8 & 12

Poet Laureate, Brookline, MA