Mythical Beasts and Poetry
Reveal Our Humanity
Much of poetry celebrates our humanity while it steps back to take a look at us, our lives and our world, with a careful eye. If we're lucky it's a kind eye, and one that's compassionate and humorous. In D.A. Feinfeld's new collection of poems, Bestiary of the Heart, these poetic gifts combine with Feinfeld's love for and experience in science to make watchful, precise poems that chortle and empathize with us.
The poems in Bestiary of the Heart are divided into three sections, "Arts and Sciences," "Bestiary," and "Time Travel." Consciously or not, the sections parallel the triumvirate that makes up human nature: mind, body, and spirit. Another threesome at work in this collection is intelligence, wit, and feeling, all of which are strong.
Feinfeld writes with a fine balance between humor and serious thought. Some of the poems in Bestiary of the Heart, like the spoof of astrology or the menagerie of mythical beasts, are hilarious. Others are intellectually challenging, like "Atom, Split," in which science is used as a metaphor for the human heart. Some poems go after the pitfalls of the human condition, like "Erosion," which poignantly dissects the aging process.
A highlight of the collection is the series of made-up beasts--for example, "Peccadillo," "Lacuna," "Janissary"--animals named with unusual but existing English nouns. These imaginary creatures take their characteristics from the nouns they're named after and existing beasts who have similar names. In the end these animals describe and lampoon human behavior. They are a delightful edition to our menagerie, and they take a level-headed and good-natured look at our foibles and charms.
About the author
D.A. Feinfeld edited the literary magazine and won the undergraduate poetry prize at the University of Rochester. In recent years he has studied with Thomas Lux and Colette Inez. His first collection of poems, What Do Numbers Dream Of?, was published in 1997. His poems have appeared in over forty literary journals, including Ploughshares, High Plains Literary Review, Evansville Review, and Slant. Dr. Feinfeld teaches medicine and nephrology at Nassau County Medical Center and SUNY-Stony Brook on Long Island, New York." |
