Although Brian Wayne Maki has titled this new volume of poetry Ordinary Reflections, I find many of the poems to be quite poignant. I appreciate that he follows William Wordsworth’s dictate that a poet should be a “man speaking to men,” perhaps with more sensitivity and joy for life than others, but nevertheless, speaking in their language. In other words, Maki writes what might be considered, even by him, ordinary poems—they are not filled with images that act like puzzles that distract the reader from the meaning. His words and subjects are straightforward and reflect those special, far from ordinary, moments when we most reflect on life. In fact, he makes us realize that our lives are filled with meaningful and poetic moments, even if we do not turn them into poetry ourselves.
Everyone will find something in this volume to relate to since Maki’s poems are diverse in their subjects. Because I am a resident of Upper Michigan like Maki, the poems about that area and nature especially resonate with me, but Maki also writes about dying pets, basketball games, growing older, and the puzzles and meaning of life.
It is impossible to describe these poems without quoting from them. I most enjoy the nostalgia Maki finds in looking back to his past and drawing from it, remembering what Wordsworth called the “spots of time” that give us strength and glow for us later in life, helping us to get through life’s rougher moments. Like Maki, I have found that nostalgia and strength in my childhood and in Upper Michigan’s past. I appreciate Maki’s own escapes into the past, as he writes in "Upper Michigan Wild": “For the Upper Michigan wild never seems to age / You go back to those roads and find it the same.”
His other poems, "Aging Roadway" and "Old Dirt Roads" similarly resonate with me, making me want to jump in the car and drive down the old dirt roads to be alone with the past, a simpler and quieter time. Like his narrator in "The Last Ride," I’m sure I’ll someday be saying:
Drive me out toward the lakeshore road today
Back to the street where I grew up and played
Around a sharp corner that made me nervous
This is my secret wish for my last ride home.
While Maki’s poems in his previous books have been filled with nostalgia and even longing for the past, this book is the first where he seems to be aware of his aging:
Now, I am an aging man with stars and stripes to fulfill
I can still touch the moment of my youth in the game
The image of myself playing under the bright lights
And taking that one shot to win against the big foe.
Article comments