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Untitled
poems by Richard Kovac
Review by Bill Berry in the Stevens Point Gazette
poems by Richard Kovac
Review by Bill Berry in the Stevens Point Gazette
Richard Kovac of Stevens Point is the author of a book of poems released this autumn. “Untitled”
is a slim book filled with mostly short poems and a couple of essays. It is well worth the read, and
Kovac may be the best poet Stevens Point and Wisconsin never knew.
When it comes to poetry, there seem to be three categories of people. Those who don’t read
poetry and never will are one group. How unfortunate for them. It is a little like walking in a
woods and failing to see the tiny but beautiful wildflowers that adorn the forest floor.
Another group, those with various aca demic pedigrees, reads poems with a critical eye. They
are schooled in the history of the genre and understand poems in relation to structure and stanza
and cadence and other nuances that escape the average person’s purview. This group sees the
flowers on the forest floor but might mistake taxonomy for the beauty of art.
The third category is people who read poetry because they like, it, even if they don’t understand
the rules and regulations. I am in that category, and on behalf of my group, I must say that
Richard Kovac’s poems are a joy.
Consider lines like these from “It is Mere ly the Map”:
The data base
Isn’t the thing
Kept track of
Unless the thing
Kept track of is data bases.
Things still exist
Somewhere.
Kovac is a little man who has seen the world in many different ways, including that of a street
person. He is a college graduate and worked as a civil servant in several states. He has also been a
member of the peace movement since 1965, with the War Resisters League and the Catholic
Workers Movement.
The latter movement and its co-founder, Dorothy Day, serve as inspiration for the author, as
referenced in an essay in this book. Kovac embraces his own Catholicism willingly, but like any
good poet, with a bit of skepticism about institutions and their pitfalls. The title poem, “Untitled,”
is sweetly ironic, a little story about Jesus applying to teach at Catholic University:
No initials
After his name.
Neither doctorate
Nor divinity degrees.
Not even “Dr”
Of dentistry.
It goes on to summarize the applicant’s chances:
No interview needed
At this time.
And we regret the unlikelihood
Of suitable opening
(for him)
In the near future.
Next application.
Kovac has the ability to say a ton with a few words. His poems can at once be tender, sweet,
sassy and sad. He is able to celebrate the little moments that pass by the rest of us unnoticed.
My favorite time to read poetry is at night, just before turning out the lights, when long paragraphs
have no use or value unless I want to read them over and over again. Under the reading light at the
night stand, it is poetry that gets to the point, telling a whole chapter full of stories in just a few
lines.
Richard Kovac’s slim book fits well in places like that. It is available at Book World and Kindred
Spirits in downtown Stevens Point and from the publisher, Poetic Matrix Press, Madera, CA,
93639.
is a slim book filled with mostly short poems and a couple of essays. It is well worth the read, and
Kovac may be the best poet Stevens Point and Wisconsin never knew.
When it comes to poetry, there seem to be three categories of people. Those who don’t read
poetry and never will are one group. How unfortunate for them. It is a little like walking in a
woods and failing to see the tiny but beautiful wildflowers that adorn the forest floor.
Another group, those with various aca demic pedigrees, reads poems with a critical eye. They
are schooled in the history of the genre and understand poems in relation to structure and stanza
and cadence and other nuances that escape the average person’s purview. This group sees the
flowers on the forest floor but might mistake taxonomy for the beauty of art.
The third category is people who read poetry because they like, it, even if they don’t understand
the rules and regulations. I am in that category, and on behalf of my group, I must say that
Richard Kovac’s poems are a joy.
Consider lines like these from “It is Mere ly the Map”:
The data base
Isn’t the thing
Kept track of
Unless the thing
Kept track of is data bases.
Things still exist
Somewhere.
Kovac is a little man who has seen the world in many different ways, including that of a street
person. He is a college graduate and worked as a civil servant in several states. He has also been a
member of the peace movement since 1965, with the War Resisters League and the Catholic
Workers Movement.
The latter movement and its co-founder, Dorothy Day, serve as inspiration for the author, as
referenced in an essay in this book. Kovac embraces his own Catholicism willingly, but like any
good poet, with a bit of skepticism about institutions and their pitfalls. The title poem, “Untitled,”
is sweetly ironic, a little story about Jesus applying to teach at Catholic University:
No initials
After his name.
Neither doctorate
Nor divinity degrees.
Not even “Dr”
Of dentistry.
It goes on to summarize the applicant’s chances:
No interview needed
At this time.
And we regret the unlikelihood
Of suitable opening
(for him)
In the near future.
Next application.
Kovac has the ability to say a ton with a few words. His poems can at once be tender, sweet,
sassy and sad. He is able to celebrate the little moments that pass by the rest of us unnoticed.
My favorite time to read poetry is at night, just before turning out the lights, when long paragraphs
have no use or value unless I want to read them over and over again. Under the reading light at the
night stand, it is poetry that gets to the point, telling a whole chapter full of stories in just a few
lines.
Richard Kovac’s slim book fits well in places like that. It is available at Book World and Kindred
Spirits in downtown Stevens Point and from the publisher, Poetic Matrix Press, Madera, CA,
93639.
Point man may be best poet
Wisconsin never knew
Wisconsin never knew