A Review of Tim Suermondt's Just Beautiful
Paperback: 105 pages
Publisher: NYQ Books 2010
Available for purchase at: nyqbooks.org
Review by April Michelle Bratten
My friends, I have to tell you, leading up to this review I had a handful of odd coincidences/experiences. Let me put it to you this way. It is like when you learn a new word and suddenly it begins to appear in every book you read and pop up in every conversation you have. Well, if you have never heard the name Tim Suermondt before, you will hear that name and read it plenty of times from this day forth. This is what happened to me.
Ever since Tim's poem "Waiting for a Plane to Paris" was published in an issue of Up the Staircase Quarterly last year, I have steadily and continuously had the pleasure of "bumping" into his work in a multitude of literary journals and zines. I get the feeling that this is nothing new, as I now know Tim to have a long list of reputable and impressive publishing credits, but I did not realize just how late I was to the Suermondt game. My apologies to myself. This is my loss after all. I hope it is not yours too. Get with the program, readers! Read some Suermondt.
Just in the past couple of weeks I have run into several of Suermondt's poems while browsing through some online lit mags. I ran across a couple of his poems in a recent issue of Scapegoat Review, as well as a fantastic poem in a fairly recent issue of mojo/mikrokosmos journal called “Pepperoni Night.” Yesterday I found another poem by Tim in the spanking new issue of Red Booth Review. These are just a handful of Tim's recent publications that I have run across. I am sure there are plenty more that I have missed, but I am looking forward to finding those as well.
The great thing about these publications, along with their frequency and abundance, is how varied the journals' aesthetics are. Tim's work is enjoyed by a wide range of readers from the highly academic, to the beginning high school poet, to the chick at the end of the bar. Poignant, concise, and with human themes that readers can relate to, Tim's poetry has the ability to touch something in all of us. This is why I was so excited to receive my copy of Just Beautiful in the mail. I knew that I would find work within the book that held a beautiful simplicity written with grace.
Published four years ago by New York Quarterly Books, Just Beautiful is quintessential Suermondt. The simple cover, which I suspect might be an actual photo of Tim and his wife holding a baseball bat, demonstrates quite clearly what you will find inside. There are no bells and whistles here. Tim does not need them, which is a refreshing idea in this era of fancy-schmancy poetry. The poems are straight forward, yet highly skilled. There is beer and pizza, love, baseball, and real human emotion. The poems are often very fun to read, humorous and intimate. However, there are some fantastic melancholic poems as well. In one of my favorite poems from the book, "With the Birds on Ascan Avenue," Tim describes picking up his father's ashes from the funeral home. This poem shows how poignant and on point Tim's writing is:
While I sit in the main office
I notice two cardinals balleting
onto a branch, bowing their heads
as if in choreographed
tribute. I'd like to tell you I see
my father flying by but, even in a poem
you can't, can't have everything.
Just Beautiful is well, just beautiful. It is a book that I will be picking up again and again. Oh, and Tim? I will see ya around the journals, buddy.
Publisher: NYQ Books 2010
Available for purchase at: nyqbooks.org
Review by April Michelle Bratten
My friends, I have to tell you, leading up to this review I had a handful of odd coincidences/experiences. Let me put it to you this way. It is like when you learn a new word and suddenly it begins to appear in every book you read and pop up in every conversation you have. Well, if you have never heard the name Tim Suermondt before, you will hear that name and read it plenty of times from this day forth. This is what happened to me.
Ever since Tim's poem "Waiting for a Plane to Paris" was published in an issue of Up the Staircase Quarterly last year, I have steadily and continuously had the pleasure of "bumping" into his work in a multitude of literary journals and zines. I get the feeling that this is nothing new, as I now know Tim to have a long list of reputable and impressive publishing credits, but I did not realize just how late I was to the Suermondt game. My apologies to myself. This is my loss after all. I hope it is not yours too. Get with the program, readers! Read some Suermondt.
Just in the past couple of weeks I have run into several of Suermondt's poems while browsing through some online lit mags. I ran across a couple of his poems in a recent issue of Scapegoat Review, as well as a fantastic poem in a fairly recent issue of mojo/mikrokosmos journal called “Pepperoni Night.” Yesterday I found another poem by Tim in the spanking new issue of Red Booth Review. These are just a handful of Tim's recent publications that I have run across. I am sure there are plenty more that I have missed, but I am looking forward to finding those as well.
The great thing about these publications, along with their frequency and abundance, is how varied the journals' aesthetics are. Tim's work is enjoyed by a wide range of readers from the highly academic, to the beginning high school poet, to the chick at the end of the bar. Poignant, concise, and with human themes that readers can relate to, Tim's poetry has the ability to touch something in all of us. This is why I was so excited to receive my copy of Just Beautiful in the mail. I knew that I would find work within the book that held a beautiful simplicity written with grace.
Published four years ago by New York Quarterly Books, Just Beautiful is quintessential Suermondt. The simple cover, which I suspect might be an actual photo of Tim and his wife holding a baseball bat, demonstrates quite clearly what you will find inside. There are no bells and whistles here. Tim does not need them, which is a refreshing idea in this era of fancy-schmancy poetry. The poems are straight forward, yet highly skilled. There is beer and pizza, love, baseball, and real human emotion. The poems are often very fun to read, humorous and intimate. However, there are some fantastic melancholic poems as well. In one of my favorite poems from the book, "With the Birds on Ascan Avenue," Tim describes picking up his father's ashes from the funeral home. This poem shows how poignant and on point Tim's writing is:
While I sit in the main office
I notice two cardinals balleting
onto a branch, bowing their heads
as if in choreographed
tribute. I'd like to tell you I see
my father flying by but, even in a poem
you can't, can't have everything.
Just Beautiful is well, just beautiful. It is a book that I will be picking up again and again. Oh, and Tim? I will see ya around the journals, buddy.
Tim Suermondt is the author of Trying to Help the Elephant Man Dance (The Backwaters Press, 2007) and two chapbooks from Pudding House and The Manny Trio Press. He has published work in Poetry, The New York Quarterly, The Georgia Review, New South, Southern Poetry Review, Poetry East, Bellevue Literary Review and Poetry Northwest, among others. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.