Archive - May 27, 2015

Keepers Meet Questing Eyes: Poems by John Michael Flynn (Moldova 1993-1995) Leaf Garden Press $6.00 120 pages 2014 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-1993) • John Michael Flynn’s latest collection of poetry doesn’t come in a conventional package. Unlike a standard 6-by-9-inch poetry collection, with its requisite arty (or, on occasion, awful) cover, Flynn’s Keepers Meet Questing Eyes looks and feels more like a coloring book. But in a good-and fitting-way. Flynn’s poems don’t aspire to be arty or clever or coy. They’re honest evocations of life, and they invite the reader in the same way a coloring book invites children in: with generosity and without pretense. Of course Flynn’s poems are aimed at an adult readership, and their rewards lie in their directness and clarity. One of my favorites is “Heath,” about the actor Heath Ledger, who comes across in the poem as a good man despite his having . . .