A Review of "The Widows and Orphans of Winesburg, Ohio" by Jared Leising

Jared Leising's poetry chapbook "The Widows and Orphans of Winesburg, Ohio" is titled after one of the poems in the collection and pays homage to Sherwood Anderson's interrelated collection of short stories. The poet has selected a good title since most of the collection features detailed sketches of incidents and people. The poems are consistent in tone and style--most take a somewhat distant point of view to start with and then tend to reverberate emotionally with the author in some fashion that is conveyed to the reader. I often felt that each piece had more import than was immediately presented. Because of this, I tended to pause and think about each for several moments. Overall it's a very detailed and very thoughtful collection.

A case in point is the excerpt titled "Pictures Never Taken". The third paragraph titled "17." paints a scene with men working on a motorcycle and ends with the lines :

"... As I approach, the men stop and look up

like they know me, then slam a wooden door in my face."

Curious. My mind went in many directions, did the men know him, were they doing something illegal, did they not like the author, did they leave the bike, where was he, etc. I went back looking through the poem looking for details that might answer my questions. I witnessed a similar scene on a street in China. But none of the mechanics or owners paid any attention to my husband and me as we walked by. Because of the interaction at that exact moment, the relationships involved are brought into focus while reading the poem.

Two other poems deal with the idea of a snapshot, but are set up as prose poems-"Iowa Post Cards" and "A Photograph I Can't Find". In the first, the poet uses juxtaposition of different images in run on fashion, varying the use of italics on the font to build tension through the piece. An example reads:

"... men who've drankslappeddrank slept red with hands

clenched, moon-husked gleaning harvest scars, white grain

elevator explosions..."