{"id":5052,"date":"2020-03-22T15:39:25","date_gmt":"2020-03-22T15:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridareview.cah.ucf.edu\/?post_type=article&p=5052"},"modified":"2020-03-22T15:39:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T15:39:25","slug":"jam-session-in-poems","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/jam-session-in-poems\/","title":{"rendered":"Jam Session in Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross Country<\/em>, by Jeff Newberry and Justin Evans<\/strong><\/p>\n

WordTech Editions, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paperback, 110\u00a0 pages, $19<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Cross Country<\/em>, a collaborative book of epistolary poems published by WordTech Editions (2019), Jeff Newberry and Justin Evans pay homage to poet Richard Hugo. Hugo\u2019s 31 Letters and 13 Dreams<\/em> (1977) popularizes an epistolary tradition that originates in Ancient Rome and finds acclaim with Horace and Ovid. Hugo\u2019s poems often address other poets such as Charles Simic, William Matthews, Denise Levertov, and William Stafford. Readers become voyeurs, dropped into intimate conversations between some of the most prominent poets of the twentieth century.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hugo\u2019s poems are often imagistic reports of a place, as he writes in \u201cLetter to Wagoner from Port Townsend\u201d: \u201cDear Dave: Rain five days and I love it.\u201d These epistles transcend the reportage of place idiosyncrasies to reveal Hugo\u2019s vulnerabilities and anxieties\u2014both about himself as well as the world around him. In \u201cLetter to Bell from Missoula,\u201d Hugo writes: \u201cMonths since I left broke down and sobbing \/ in the parking lot, grateful for the depth \/ of your understanding [\u2026].\u201d \u00a0It is this balance of the specific details of a place with the personal thoughts of a brilliant writer and flawed human that has been so appealing to Hugo\u2019s readers over many years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In Hugo\u2019s letter poems, we are only privy to one side of the conversation, however. We do not know how the addressees respond to Hugo\u2014or if they respond at all. Hugo\u2019s epistolary poems are decidedly one-sided; Newberry\u2019s and Evans\u2019 Cross Country<\/em>, however, is a mutual conversation where both poets relay their deepest fears, desires, and hopes\u2014to each other and to their lucky readers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evans sets the stage for Cross Country<\/em> in one of the earliest poems in the book, \u201cLetter to Newberry about Past Memories of Colorado\u201d: \u201cDear Jeff: I think we\u2019re all looking \/ for something, looking to run \/ to or from something.\u201d Indeed, Cross Country<\/em> feels like a search for a meaningful spiritual faith, for familial acceptance, and for a way to exist in a contemporary world that often seems mired in violence, sadness, and a persistent irrationality. This is a book that emerges from a contemporary scene that includes the mass shootings in Sandy Hook and Orlando and the 2016 presidential election, but it is also a book that asks looming personal and philosophical questions about love and loss, a book where we \u201cwant to see the mystery unfold, \/ complex as it might be\u201d (Evans).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Evans and Newberry allow readers to see them at their most vulnerable\u2014particularly when they broach the topics of their children, as well as of their own fathers. In a particularly tender sequence entitled \u201cLetter to Evans: Like Waves Breaking,\u201d Newberry describes his fears about his young daughter\u2019s spina bifida, and ends the poem by writing: \u201cI take each breath with her, willing my lungs \/ do the work for her. She sleeps and I sleep.\u201d Newberry\u2019s helplessness is profound, but it is in moments such as this one where a subsequent poem from Evans acknowledges Newberry\u2019s anxiety and empathizes with him: \u201cAs a father myself, I \/ understand what you are saying, though \/ I cannot know the specifics of your fears\u201d (Evans). The dialogue that Evans and Newberry create in Cross Country<\/em> is deeply moving precisely because in it they engage fully in the difficulties of each other\u2019s lives and offer each other comfort and solace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If literature\u2019s job is to teach us what it means to be human and how to empathize with one another, then Cross Country<\/em> delivers those lessons in honest and accessible poems. Evans\u2019 and Newberry\u2019s narratives weave in and out of each other organically. It seems as though we are present at a blues jam session where the musicians have known each other for so long that they finish each other\u2019s riffs. In fact, in the penultimate poem of the book, Newberry writes, \u201cJustin, when you unseal this poem, remember \/ that it is made of voice the way that music is made \/ from the guitar player\u2019s deft fingers.\u201d The music in Cross Country<\/em> will break your heart. Just like the greatest songs, though, these poems also sound the bells of hope and grit because, as Evans reminds us, \u201cWe must each \/ set the bar each morning as we greet the new day, \/ as each new day is certain to find us, willing or not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Readers become voyeurs, dropped into intimate conversations …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5057,"template":"","categories":[9,139],"tags":[6,1412,1413,1414,1415,1416,420,1417],"class_list":["post-5052","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquifer","category-book-review","tag-aquifer-the-florida-review-online","tag-co-authorship","tag-cross-country","tag-dominika-wrozynski","tag-epistolary-poems","tag-jam-session-in-poems","tag-jeff-newberry","tag-justin-evans"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJam Session in Poems - The Florida Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/jam-session-in-poems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jam Session in Poems - The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Readers become voyeurs, dropped into intimate conversations ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/article\/jam-session-in-poems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Florida Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cah.ucf.edu\/floridareview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/03\/newberry-evans-cover-detail-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"531\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"311\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/jam-session-in-poems\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cah.ucf.edu\\\/floridareview\\\/article\\\/jam-session-in-poems\\\/\",\"name\":\"Jam Session in Poems - 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