MY NOVENA
By: Peter Schwartz
T.K. LLC
P.O. Box 767
Augusta, ME 04332
Price: $4.50 / 19 pages / 1 Poem
Review By: Charles P. Ries
Word Count: 216
Peter Schwartz walks the line between ethereal image and the
everyday about as well as any poet writing in the small press.
His new book, “My Novena” is a single poem that covers nine
days in nineteen pages. The word novena is from the Latin word
novem meaning nine. It is a process of hopeful mourning, of
yearning and prayer which if conducted over nine consecutive
days promises special graces. Schwartz embarks on his
reflection and on day one notes that, “I swim without / meaning
as my memory / tunes itself to the tides / becoming the net / it
always was”. And on day five: he comes into his own with the
realization “to domesticate the distance / to acquaint flyspecks
/ with the celestial / because intimacy’s / its own habitat / a
pleasant anarchy / seldom discussed”. Schwartz’s considerable
talent at colliding the eloquent and common greatly elevated
my experience with his reflections. “My Novena” no longer
became just his prayer, but mine as well when on day four he
notes, “I waver / from being somebody to nobody /so many time
within the space / of a single hour that I really am / that person
in between / the intermediate / the delegate / the agent and
broker / to a condition / that can perhaps / be best summed up /
as heartbroken”. This is a very talented writer.