Agitations and Allelujas

Some 40 of the 80 poems in the collection Agitations and Allelujas, authored by Harvey Steinberg and published by Ragged Sky Press, first saw the light of day in literary publications ranging from those containing a variety of genres, such as Wisconsin Review, Epicenter, Diner, Aries, and dozens more, to those that specialize: in form (The Lyric), attitude (Parody), and content (Dissections). The subjects the poet writes about differ widely too. A reader will take excursions into singular behaviors ("At sixty he still plays hockey on the frozen lake/and urges boys to clip him, aggrieves them so they must") and subliminal reveries that culminate in action ("portents toll to fasten acquiescence/. . . come day's toils I'll do what needs be done."). Steinberg's wealth of worldly experience, accompanied by substantial credentials in the arts and the academy, impel the book's diversity of themes and prosody: reflections on Hemingway and Matisse in free verse and of Dickinson in rhymed quatrain; a passionate sonnet of abandoned love ("Love's Losings") in counterpoint with licentious limericks; sightings into war, Americana, the outdoors, China, Poland; imaginings about myth-laden Greece. Humor, outrage, sighs are embedded in this volume. "Art," says Steinberg, "is taking risks."