Normally I don't review chapbooks; in fact, a part of me refuses to accept chapbooks as anything but incomplete sections, chapters that should be reserved for a full-length book. And after a few full-length books have been published, the poet's opus then need to be compiled into a collection of his/her best work, but that is the work of time which requires time. However, I decided to make an exception for Whatever the Story Requires because the poems in this book are strong and have a finished feel to them. Though let me be fair, some of the poems were a little too safe, too distant for me; but this is surely indicative of my preference and not the fault of the writing. The better poems were clever, exploratory, precise in their intent and said enough in fewer lines than a whole repository of writing, which will often put me to sleep.

I'd read many of these poems before in zines or online workshops and yet, when I ran across them in this chapbook, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they read even more coherent, fresher as if I were reading them for the first time. I think there is something to be said for the printed page in book form no matter how many pages it comprises, whether that number is 36 or 366, the tangible feel of a book in which the poet's voice is concentrated gives the reader an opportunity to become more familiar with the writer's voice, style, or intent. These parts come into focus upon each successive read of a poem. One of my favorite poems is "a small blue god":

Today he's playing a toy piano
atop the dump. It's Tuesday and he's safe

because the washer women are out
degreasing the clouds. Valderee, he sings,

valderah, his tiny voice nearly
buried beneath the scavenger's crees.

He might be the smallest of all gods, the least
likely to bring change. Yet every day

he sings to the sky because it looks
so much like him, big and full of hope.

What I absolutely adore about this poem is its simplicity, its remarkable voice and the immediacy of telling; (note how the first line begins with "Today"). By the second line, I had everything I needed to slide into this poem--a toy piano, Tuesday and a child alone. Now, for the symphony, "Valderee" and "valderah," "the scavenger's crees" are grand notes that aurally and maternally endeared me to the poem. How wonderfully magical and innocently these lines manage to capture the child's delight in being able to shrill out his song to the world. The child's world/voice is singularly one of the most difficult things for a writer to capture well without tipping the cutesy, cloying scale. This is why "small blue god" is remarkable. The only metaphor I questioned was: "degreasing the clouds" - I'm not for sure I understand this trope, and I think it's a little overreaching, but the poem rights itself immediately with this gorgeous observation: "He might be the smallest of gods, the least/likely to bring change."

Another great poem, that I had read before is, "Fly." There are enough fly and maggot poems published out there to gross me out for life, but Steve does something else with the fly by suiting it up in a tie, "a bit of spit in hair" --an anthropomorphosis that makes this fly endearing, not cartoonish or silly. I won't include the poem here, you'll need to pick up a copy of Steve's chapbook and read it for yourself.

On the whole, Steve's voice, style, linebreaks are very sure and while these alone don't paint the entire story, they are enough to get a feel for the poet's work. What stood out foremost for me was I could sense that the poet took some time to carefully select the poems included in this book. There is nothing more disparaging than to come across a chapbook that has been slapped together for the sake of publishing; to read poems that are in rough draft form that should have never been included in the book to begin with, thereby canceling out the stellar poems. This is not the case with Whatever the Story Requires. As a chapbook, this is good as it's going to get. Which is to say, you can't have the full story, it's not done yet, it's just the beginning which will leave you wanting to read more of this writer's work.

*"a small blue god" first appeared in American Poetry Journal. Reprinted here with the permission of Steve Mueske, Copyright © 2004 Steve Mueske. All Rights Reserved.


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