Awkward Scrapes
by Eric Scott Sutherland
56 Poems ~ 65 pages
Cover Image: Lawrence Tarpey
Price: $19.00
Publisher: Accents Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-96112-28-9
To Order: www.accents-publishing.com
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
Eric Sutherland Scott opens Awkward Scrapes with a provocative quote from Leonard Cohen’s song “Anthem”:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Sutherland has chosen the perfect segue for his collection. What could be more awkward or bring on more scrapes in life than the idea of brokenness. Sutherland’s brokenness theme recalls Robert Frost’s incomparable wisdom:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by …
Eric Sutherland writes primarily in free verse. But the poet knows that there is nothing “free” about verse libre. His chosen form is the “container” most capable of holding this poet’s wide-ranging truth. I enjoyed a variety of styles including couplets, tercets, quatrains, solid lineage, interesting indentations, and compelling titles that piqued my interest drawing me into his poems.
From the get-go Sutherland’s use of imagery impressed me. Consider his opener “Like Magnets”
we are drawn
to the depths
of each other,
unable to stave
off the impending
collision. The heat
immense in the small
space separating
the fleshy vessels
we find ourselves
in, too weak
to fight the pull.
I “feel” the magnetic action. Tension is created within a relationship that is at once “deep” in its connotations, yet fraught with uncertainties. Awkward to say the least. This poem sets the stage for subtleties that ring true for this reviewer.
Throughout the collection I found myself responding to Sutherland’s images. They became for me the medium by which truth is conveyed.
“Sex on the Beach“ calls upon the poet’s powers of observation as they relate to truth that is quite real to me:
Horseshoe crab looks
dead on the beach,
barnacles on ragged claws.
Back in the vacation bed,
I’m not ready to die
at the ocean’s edge.
Sutherland’s poetry parallels nature and often merges nature and human experiences as noted in “Sex on the Beach.” “Fishing” compares that pastime to life. I can testify to the same as my son, a world-class fisherman, takes me with him on vacation. Sutherland avers:
By the creek there is litter
and disappointment.
It’s like life,
never easy
and often a letdown.
As the poem develops my son “untangles” the mess I’ve made of my fouled lines. I have trouble getting the worm on my hook. He helps me. We can’t wait to get into the lunches our wives have made. It is all about the relationship. Sutherland captures that spirit:
In the end, we catch
a great blue heron
descending upon us
like a sea ray from the sky.
Another one of God’s creatures
under the sun’s unjudging eye
making do.
It is the “making do” part that speaks to me. What else do we do, so much of the time, but “make do.” It seems that in nearly every area of life we encounter Robert Frost, and choices to make about which road to take. We see the litter by the creek, we untangle the backlash created by the miscasts we make in life. The little “scrapes” that either form a lasting scab or become cracks that “let in the light.” I’m for letting in the light, and so is Eric Sutherland.
The poet is also a dad. In “Letter to My Six-Year-Old Son” the poet surrounds the boy with affirmation when his playmates make fun of him calling him “girly.” The boy epitomizes those awkward scrapes that make all the difference in how they are handled. In this case wisdom gets the upper hand.
“Domestic” spotlights life’s mundane activities: washing socks, folding towels, scrubbing dishes, running the vacuum sweeper, flossing and brushing before bed, those patient moments putting the child (who won’t stop talking) to bed. All these common things are fraught with potential awkward scrapes, were it not for Eric Sutherland’s penchant for embracing life’s imperfections which:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
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