Eric D. Goodman Faraway Tables, 1425 E. 41st Pl Tulsa, OK 74105, Yorkshire Publishing, 114 pages, ISBN 978-1-960810-54-0, October 1, 2024, $16.99
Eric Goodman’s poetry in his book Faraway Tables engages the reader immediately in the poem “Patience” ostensibly about brewing coffee in the morning. It transports you to the experience of desire and “the purchased reward of indulgence” and more. The commonplace is wonderfully changed by his words into a full experience for reflection and celebration.
Goodman is a world traveler. He went to school in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union. His poems often take the reader to exotic or foreign scenes. “In Notre Dame Bardo” the scene is in a Catholic Cathedral—I’m taking it to be the Notre Dame in Paris, though it isn’t explicitly designated as such. The scene of the poem is set with this stanza:
In this sacred fortress,
One of fifty thousand churches in France,
Sunlight filters through stained glass.
Then the sunlight converts the experience into a Buddhist Bardo, an intermediate place between life and death. The poem, I believe, does not document or announce a religious belief as it proceeds to reproduce or describe a spiritual or psychological and very physical perception of this world:
Serrated red erupts from the window,
Swarms the cold stone floor,
Spills over your white shirt.
The poem then describes the “disorienting moment” as “recklessness…clarity…
Connected to everything and nothing at once.”
Though the poem consists of only six stanzas, 3 lines each, it goes toward hinting so much. Goodman takes the reader into his experiences whether they are completely of this world or suggestive of another plane of reality.
The poem that follows the one above is titled Toast to Friendship. It is set in Kyiv’s Independence Square and describes a past visit to it and to both imagined present and future visits to it. What was a place of peace has now become a threat to civilian life in the war. The poem is not as much a protest but a remembrance of friends and a hope for peace in the future. This poem is a monument to Goodman’s humanity and decent and moral character. The poem ends:
When this passes,
Let my adult children stand
In Independence Square again
Alongside the children
Of my Ukrainian and Russian friends
And let the new generation toast
To international friendship
Just as we did, so sincerely, not so long ago.
The book is divided into four sections titled “Savor,” “Ache,” “Enough,” and “More (or Less).” The poems in the book are both praises and laments. Some like Yin Yang Yankee Doodle express the balancing of good fortune and bad, blessings & curses. If something good happens to one person, something bad happens to someone else. The poet expresses this way more eloquently than I am now, but this is the idea behind the poem. Goodman gives the reader something to think about as well as to revel in the economy of his expression. The poems discussed above are in “Savor.” In “Ache” misfortune takes center stage, though not unopposed. My favorite poems among the many here are “Sisson’s” of South Baltimore’ and “Sassy.” “Sisson’s” describes the reality there before the poet weaves his story. The poem is 3 pages long, 14 stanzas. Here are the first four:
At Sisson’s,
The bar of dark polished wood
Invites elbows and forearms to rest.
The mirrored wall,
Obstructed by half-emptied bottles—
Jack, Jim, Jose, Hennessey—
Allows you to see behind you
As people enter and assess,
Take a seat and order a drink:
The booth of youngsters being carded
And asked politely to leave,
Lowering their heads in shame as they
Scuffle out to look for a more easygoing
Watering hole;
The table of workers from Cross Street Market
Discussing plans for the weekend ahead,
Glad to be through another week of
Slinging shrimp cocktails,
Icing wide-eyed fish,
Frosting bakery cupcakes,
Selling buckets of flowers and
bushels of crabs and
sandwiches stacked high with pastrami;
The poem continues with a right-on description and gets into its philosophic and moral questioning. “Sassy” is a less populated poem. It consists of the owner of a dog and the dog named “Sassy.” It is very moving to a dog lover and recognizable. I will hide its delight for the reader, though its delight as a poem is mixed with a surprise ending.
“Enough” is filled with good reads. My favorites are “Immersion”; “Gulp’; ”Drink”; “Dogged Memories”; and “Stuffed.” Excellent satire in most of those. The reader may very well have a different list of favorites. Eric Goodman maintains his quality of expression and insights throughout this book. Some of the poems are more autobiographical than others but they do connect.
“More (or Less)” is the closing section of the book. Some of these poems are rather singular. “Dogwoods” is purely lyrical. It uses a basic metaphor and develops it well. “Layover” is autobiographical about meeting some old friends after some years at a Russian airport. “Poolside with Wilfrid Brumley” is an odd little poem. “Hammer” is a brutal poem. I don’t know where it is set—Nazi Germany, Russia? “Countryman” is in a sense an elegy for the late Wayne Countryman who died a couple of years ago. It commemorates his life. Many Baltimoreans, especially those in the literary community, will remember him. “Submission to a Student Magazine (from a writer who’s burning out)” is a poem many poets can identify with.
Faraway Tables has a wealth of poems in it. There is a good variety. Reading the book is a pleasure and instructive in our journey through life. Eric Goodman who has written fiction and non-fiction is also a talented poet.
© Eric D. Goodman and Dan Cuddy
Eric D. Goodman lives and writes in Maryland. He is the author of six previously published books of fiction. More than 100 of his short stories, articles, and travel stories have been published in literary journals, magazines, and periodicals. Eric’s recent poetry has been published in more than 20 publications, including Gargoyle Magazine and The Main Street Rag. Learn more about Eric and his writing at www.EricDGoodman.com.
Dan Cuddy is currently an editor of the Loch Raven Review. In the past, he was a contributing editor of the Maryland Poetry Review and Lite: Baltimore’s Literary Newspaper. His book of poetry, Handprint on the Window, was published in 2003. Recently he has had poems published in Super Poetry Highway, Literary Heist, Horror Sleaze Trash, the Rats’s Ass Review, Roanoke Review, the Amethyst Review, Synchronized Chaos, Fixator Press, The Manor Mill Anthology, Gargoyle, Witcraft, and the WE Anthology.
The Loch Raven Review 