When the Virus Came Calling
Covid-19 Strikes America
Edited by Thelma T. Reyna
117 Poems and Essays ~ 265 Pages
Price: $16.00
Publisher: Golden Foothills Press
ISBN: 978-0-99696632-7-5
To Order: www.GoldenFoothillsPress.com


Reviewed by Michael Escoubas

“In order to write about life,” Earnest Hemmingway once wrote, “You must first live it,”
I thought about that quote as I prepared to review When the Virus Came Calling. Indeed,
the poets whose work appears within these pages, understand Hemingway’s famous dictum.
Editor Thelma T. Reyna’s thoughtfully arranged anthology offers valuable perspectives on
the viral scourge which has gripped America and the world, like the tentacles of a giant squid.

Limiting the anthology’s scope to the American experience, 45 distinguished authors have
produced a compelling collection coalescing around four dimensions: Invasion, Seclusion,
Introspection and Realizations


Invasion (January/February)

Gerda Govine Ituarte’s poem, “Bloom” is the perfect lead-off poem in that it asks an important
question: What can poets do to make the world a better place?” While this question is always
relevant, it seems especially so in the present moment. Ituarte’s desire is to:

       let each of us as poets create
       words that feed our souls
       free our minds make us thankful
       to be alive

In my personal life I have always desired to be a “difference-maker.” One of the ways we poets
CAN make a difference is by facing issues head-on. Michael Haussler’s “This year’s COVID-19,”
does this. He’s been here before: “I went through this twice. / Fifty-seven Sixty-eight / a million
dead each.” // Speaking from experience, Haussler knows what this latest invasion is about:

       How quickly distance
       Becomes the new social norm.
       Jacked into our screens.

If the Earth could weigh-in about the origins of Covid-19, what would she say? “Mother Earth
Speaks,” by Judie Rae, skillfully uses personification to shake this reviewer to the core of his being.
Chronicling the many blessings given to mankind … then reviewing what mankind (“I”) have done
with those blessings … suffice to say, I came away with a fresh perspective.


Seclusion (March)

Throughout this section, I was struck by the variety of responses to the hard reality of seclusion.
With the world quiet, Michael Haussler’s personal essay reflects on Rachel Carson’s environmental
masterpiece, Silent Spring. Carson, whose writing ability is equal to that of many poet’s, inspires
Haussler to see the world’s beauty in fresh ways. The pandemic “pause” makes such “seeing” possible.
He points out that the pandemic is not the only enemy we face.

Teachers write about relationships with their students and the challenges seclusion poses for education.
These poems and essays capture something special about courage, perseverance, and love.

“Cold Vivid State I,” by GT Foster, lashes out at the social, economic, and spiritual suffering conferred
on California when Governor Gavin Newsome shut down the state. I read this poem as applicable nationwide.

“Waiting It Out” by Martina Gallegos, does a good job of expressing the frustration shared by many:

       In a dimmed-out living room
       I can hear the rain outside
       This goddamn virus
       is making me feel sad

       Staying home in self-isolation
       depression is lurking in
       Two long weeks cooped up inside
       with only short visits to the garden

       I try to tune out my feelings
       and listen to the friendly rain
       so I can keep at least mildly sane
       till the virus can infect itself dead


Introspection (April/May)

Moving to the front lines of the battle, many poems describe conditions in stark military terms.
The horror of “makeshift morgues,” bodies “wrapped in shrouds,” and a world “populated by
spacemen in white hazmat suits,” form the landscape.

Nancy Shiffrin’s poem “My Doctor Calls” captures part of the collateral damage inherent in lockdowns:

       he wants to know
       why I missed my last appointment
       do I have a fever
       shortness of breath
       gastric distress
       muscle spasms
       dizziness
       do I need a video conference

In this section the poets look death in the face, contemplate the innumerable frustrations of lockdowns,
as they invite readers to join them together, watching the world pass in plague-time. Your reviewer came
away from this section feeling encouraged and supported through shared experiences.


Realizations (June/July)

Though not specifically stated, I definitely sensed strains of Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are ‘a Changin’
as I identified with this last section of poems. Why would I channel one of the most influential poets/anthems
of the 1960s? If this anthology does anything, it has challenged the way this reviewer thinks. New thinking,
new realizations are hard to come by. The decade of the 1960s, dealing as it did, with war, assassinations,
and racial tensions signaled that life in this country would never be, could never be, the same again. 2020
seems to have compacted a decade of change within the confines of a few short months.

On July 30, 2020, John Lewis wrote an essay for the NY Times. Thelma T. Reyna uses excerpts from
Lewis’ essay in her poem “Panoply of Gods.” Reyna chose these lines as the poem’s epigraph:

       “Answer the highest call of your heart and stand up for
       what you truly believe … the way of peace, the way
       of love and nonviolence is the more excellent way.”

Through the work of dedicated poets like those whose work appears in When the Virus Came Calling,
the country we love will surely find that elusive more excellent way.

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