My Human Comedy

by Gerry Hill

Gerald Hill uses familiar images from nature, sports and creative writing to create these captivating mediations on life and love, family, and loss. Although there is much longing and loneliness in My Human Comedy, what passion there is is for playful words, the play of words, the layering and combining of images into still-life vignettes. A central figure in these poems is even named Stan Still, a pun of a name, a symbol for the stillness born of the end of striving. Many of the central symbols are familiar - wind, rain, crows, slowpitch softball, a pickup game of hockey, a teacher's relationship to his students, a father's feelings for his son and daughters. Many poems refer to poets, and poetry, and the art of writing. In the end, lines from the hockey poem "Before Dark" sum things up Everyone hollers for the last shot/and here it is, no, nowhere near the goal/which after all cannot be seen./No goals let's just keep playing/and there's another rush.

105 pages, Paperback

First published April 18, 2008

Reviews

[Andrew Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

My enjoyment of a book is always improved by its cover, which in this case is notable ( I think there is a somewhat famous contrarian view). I’ll admit I missed much of the meaning in the poems and overall. While the main character throughout had a memorable name, unfortunately the author didn’t take advantage and the plot came to a , you know, Stan Still…

It was nice to retrace prior travels nearby Southey Sask.

Rhubarbarians….

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was more "Canadian" than I expected. Lots of imagery that I think resonates more with someone from the Canadian prairies than anyone else, although the themes are pretty universal anyways. Works fine from me, being from Alberta, just surprising. I also thought it would be a bit more narrative since the synopsis on the back specifically mentioned the character of "Stan Still" who really doesn't matter to 90% of the poems. So that was a bit of a disappointing disconnect I had to get over.

Regardless, Hill provokes some vivid imagery, perfectly capturing many of the darker emotions of life while showing how we can still maintain a light heart in spite of them. There isn't really a consistent style to his poetry, but each poem seems to hold their own styles and structures that work for the individual works. And although it took me most of the book to elicit a full-on laugh, the light-hearted and amusing tone juxtaposed quite well with a lot of the somewhat dim subject matter.

This one was definitely worth a read, just try not to go in with too many expectations because each poem is really its own work, and each poem is good in its own right, but the paperback as a whole is a bit more disconnected than you would expect based on the description.