Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel
Poetry, as its etymology says, in its Greek form "poesis," means to create, to make, to pose; to pose the new instead of the old, the real instead of the usual. Stanley H. Barkan's cat-poems, collected here as “Pumpernickel,” including eleven poems, written and published through the last four decades, establish themselves as an actual instance of that definition, of poetry, of poesis and poesie, based on the feline character, penetrating deeply into the true nature of the cats he is speaking of, both "not very good at adapting to changes," "set in her ways," and "special," "unique," "sans pareil." This contradictory character of the cats, their intra-species similarities and their personality details together make every cat "different from every other," building up a perfect individual, a special being, a person, like the poet, like the poem, like the artwork, all have their own special, individual identity. In fact, individuality is the central element of poetry in specific, and literature and art in general, because it is the central element of the whole Being and existence. But, interestingly, this center does itself have another center: contradiction. The cat, metaphorically, stands as this center of individuality, of existence: paradox. That is the main theme of these poems, in a book which re-creates paradox in another form; creating a book to be read, by a reader who has one or even more cats, sitting on the sofa, a book in her hands, reading, with a cat "demanding attention," around the rival, the rubber, the book,"a book like this one
Mohammad Najafi
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