Shoveling Mud into Rushing Water By CL Bledsoe

Shoveling Mud into Rushing Water

By CL Bledsoe

90 pages

ISBN: 978-81-8253-800-9

Cyberwit

Copyright 2021

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

CL Bledsoe gives us some very personal poems in this new collection.  He writes about life, maybe his own in a very relatable poems of Americana using lines such as “Dad dragged me along to fetch / things I couldn’t carry” (from his title poem).

 

From the poem “LEVEES ALWAYS LEAK”

“The well spewed water from an alien-seeming white

PVC pipe into the green-topped rice field. We thought

it’d flow forever. In a hundred plus degree weather,

the mist was a Godsend. Sometimes, we’d back

a tractor up to a nearby pond and run a relift

to pump water out to a scorching field; we’d stand

under the thin sprays from leaks in the rubber pipe

trying to get cool, already soaked from sweat anyway”

 

You can really get the feel of place from these lines, as well as in his other poems.  He writes about everyday life such as cathead biscuits, a DWI, and Sundays. 

 

There is a simple sweetness to these poems, but also there’s more behind the words, too.  Mud, rice fields, and cows produce poems worthy of a re-read or three.

 

From the poem “Shoes”

“You wore duct-taped shoes, had holes

in everything, ripped and raggedy scarecrow.

A teacher saw and bought you a stylish new

pair, and when you got them home,

your mom’s boyfriend stole them…”

 

Bledsoe inserts a southern charm or country charm into the voice found in each of these poems.  They have an ease about them.  His voice carries through the pages and it’s a delightful one, or one sometimes with more of an edge.

 

It’s pure entertainment to read this poetry book.  From the poem “Elvis”:  “Mom says she’s pregnant and Elvis / is the father….”  He writes with surety taking on a darker side and twist as well in some of these poems.  Contrast is a good thing in poetry, especially in a book.  There’s usually more than one side to something someone writes.  

 

Many of these poems have been published in similar forms in journals and magazines.  It’s easy to see why. 

 

Poetry is much better if you have some inkling of connection to what you are reading.  Bledsoe’s poems express original images, all his own and he shares them to the reader to enjoy. 

 

 

 

~LB Sedlacek’s latest poetry book is “Ghost Policy.”  She is also the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “Words and Bones,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “Swim,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her non-fiction books include “The Poet Protection Plan” and “Electric Melt:  How to Write, Publish, Read Walt Whitman and Survive as a Writer and Poet).  Her short story collection is entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  She writes poetry reviews for  www.thepoetrymarket.com  Find out more:  www.lbsedlacek.com