Spring
2002
Diary of a Seducer
Poetry by D.A. Blyler
Drawings by Marcus Reichert
Carrboro: Gallery Americas (1996) 88 pages, $17.95
The
layout of Diary of a Seducer includes a poem by D.A. Blyler on the left
page and one of Marcus Reichert’s black and white line drawings on the right.
A natural marriage, one might say. At times, Blyler’s poetry lends a substance
that augments and improves the raw emotive message of Reichert’s art. At other
times, the poetry stands as a bothersome accompaniment that seems merely to
defuse and distract. The device works best when image and text come together to
form a seamless mass of message—the
poem standing not so much as a comment on the primitive childlike scrawl but as
a cry emanating from the art itself. Unfortunately, poem and image are more
often at odds than in accord.
Blyler
in the introduction, states that Reichert’s images helped release him from an
emotional and artistic constipation of sorts. In some of his works, this rings
true and we see a release from formalism that captures the crude but considered
temper of Reichert’s scribbling; in others, however, we can’t help but feel
the poet working too obviously, seeking to imbue the poem with heavy-handed
personal meanings that distort the image more than strengthen or capture its
spirit. In such cases, both poem and image would have fared better alone,
unaccompanied. We also cannot condone Blyler’s no-cap style. As usual, we see
little justification for its employment other than an embarrassment of hubris
and/or laziness. (Despite our appreciation of experiment, ALR will never
sanction the “distillation of form” argument in poetry when it reveals
itself in such a generic and maddeningly done form.) We can recommend Diary
of a Seducer for its interesting blend of abstract expressionism and
straightforward poetic imagery, but you probably won’t find us shouting its
praises from the street corner anytime in the near future.
–
CAW –
