Book Review by Cindy Hochman: Washing the Wings of the Angels, by Bob Heman

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Book Review by Cindy Hochman: Washing the Wings of the Angels, by Bob Heman (Quale Press, 2024)
                                                                                    
Folks of a certain age will remember that in the good old days, if you needed Information, you could dial 411 from your rotary phone. These days, the better option to access vital information is to “dial up” a bunch of Bob Heman’s prose poems. And you can start right here with Washing the Wings of the Angels, where you will find a mother lode of information sans the coiled wires and overworked telephone operator. All you have to bring is an open mind and a willingness to follow the poet into his generative cosmos of fecund figments, chimeras, pipe dreams, and, of course, the more-than-occasional bear.
 
In this game there are only stones or beans,
and a box used for sorting or counting ...
 
Is taught how to use the key, the ruler, the
glass. Is taught how to count the woman’s steps, ...
 
The death of the father repeated in the
movement of objects, in the counting of waves ...
 
The verb counting is prominent in these poems, and this phenomenal collection contains 79 (count ’em) of the poet’s iconic information pieces. For longtime fans of the series, this is a splendid sampling of the lifeblood of Heman’s work and demonstrates how much information can actually be elicited from even a one-line poem. Bob has opined that composing a short poem can be a more challenging process than writing a long one, involving more thought and more time, and perhaps even more complexity. This is not only an apt observation for his own work but also spot-on in terms of poetics in general. Heman specializes in concision and precision.
 
The song about the old gray mare had noth-
ing to do with the discovery of radium ...
 
In the movie the body weighs more than
soap, more than the bouquet of orchids, more than
the telescope filled with hamsters ...
 
It should be pointed out that Heman is also an accomplished collagist and, in reading these poems, one can readily discern the correlation; for example, the impeccable crafting. It is ironic that every poem on the page is box-shaped and symmetrical, which, at least on the surface, seems counterintuitive to the inventive unconventionality that is this poet’s bailiwick.
 
These poems breathe, often with a silent reverie. They bear (pun most likely intended) an authoritative voice and yet they’re not preachy. There is a quiet intensity that permeates their manner and mode: they are sweeping yet intimate, disquieting yet comfortable, self-contained yet expansive and limitless. The themes are discrete but somehow bind together, forming a whole. An information piece has a distinct tendency toward the scientific, without obscuring the mesmerizing literary bent, and for all their brevity, they cover a vast terrain. 
 
The symbols they were given included
nuns dancing with each other, rabbits construct-
ed out of barbed wire, a child’s doll designed by
Hans Bellmer ...
 
In certain climates the apple becomes a
boat, the cat becomes a door, each fern grows high-
er than the hat made of ice. In June the ketchup
limps up the mountain, never occupying the place
the question requires ...
 
They sit at their machines that have no mov-
ing parts, that have more in common with candles
than with vacuum cleaners or pencil sharpeners or
automobiles ...
 
William Carlos Williams’s adage regarding poetics (from his epic and decidedly-not-Heman-sized poem “Paterson”) was “no ideas but in things.” Heman’s poetic aesthetics do indeed focus on “things” (machines, maps, measurements), so he doesn’t quite turn this phrase on its head, but he balances it out by using a cornucopia of components to create and convey ideas. Heman’s renderings are, in fact, rooted in concrete, though often disparate, “things,” conceptually abstract but always lucid. Everyday items do unexpected things. And reminiscent of Robert Bly, Heman’s poems offer a multitude of objects and plenty of object lessons.
 
A poem without adjectives. A poem
without adverbs ...
 
For most poets, adjectives are a necessary element, while in Bob’s poems, an observant reader will notice a lack of adjectives, except for color (usually red, with no further elaboration of the hue). It’s the nouns and verbs that do the heavy lifting here. In many cases, Heman also forgoes pronouns to delineate the men and women who inhabit the poet’s realm, and it is no coincidence that the narratives are often styled as gender-neutral, giving them an evenhanded generic quality—but despite this, we can recognize them—because they are us.
 
He didn’t know there’d be bears ...
 
Ah, but we did! Anyone familiar with Bob Heman’s work knows that bears are a recurrent mainstay. They traipse in and out (usually invited, sometimes not), but interestingly, one gets the feeling that they are never the same bear; they take on different characteristics and connotations wherever they wander. Anthropomorphism is lifted to new heights, becoming a sort of prismatic personification, and equal weight is given to humans and critters, along with the inanimate possessions they wield. It is accurate to say that the poet repurposes these furry creatures to fit each scenario. Some of Heman’s bears are dour, some are delightful, and most are gentle, affable, and quite charming (don’t be surprised if you get the feeling that this affinity toward bears is aligned with the quintessence of the poet himself).
 
Upon reading this distinctive and idiomatic collection from cover to cover, it would be perfectly legitimate to ask, “But is all this information he’s feeding us factually correct?” The poet will probably never tell us; after all, any interpretations of his words are geared to leaving it up to the imaginations of those who are fortunate enough to encounter them. But the clues that Heman refers to are all here, so your best bet is to find the special key that unlocks the not-so-hidden codes of these inimitable poems. This is the only way to access the angels and possibly earn your own pair of wings.
 
Cindy Hochman
 
Editor’s Note: The author has pulled sample lines from Bob’s poetry. They appear here as lines because they are partial pieces of the whole, and because this journal’s online presentation differs from the fonts and spacing/sizing of the book. All of Bob’s prose poems in the book are justified and in blocks of text.
 
​Cindy Hochman is the founder of “100 Proof” Copyediting Services and the editor-in-chief of the online journal First Literary Review-East. She has been on the book review staff of Pedestal Magazine, and has written reviews for American Book Review and many others. She has had two poems published in Australian anthologies, Alcatraz and Play. She is the author of five chapbooks, including collaborations with Bob Heman. Her latest chapbook is Telling You Everything (Unleash Press, 2022). Cindy resides in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, USA, where she writes, edits, meditates, learns tai chi, studies the Russian language, and agonizes over politics. 

Quale Press, 2024. Click on image to see or buy at Amazon.