Deep Ends

by Roberta Schultz

84 pages, Hardcover

Published January 10, 2025

Reviews

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Roberta Schultz has recently (2023) released a new book of poems, Asking Price. There are twenty-four poems on thirty-two pages. Roberta is a polymath. She is a teacher, a guitarist, a singer, a songwriter, a member of Raison D’Etre (a folk trio with her sisters), a poet, a drum circle therapist, and a nature photographer. Some of her nature poems seem to be photographic. To me, her most important title is that she is a dear friend.

I particularly enjoyed the poet’s interactions with Helen Louise, her grandniece, Helen makes several guest-star appearances. Others in the cast of characters are a menagerie that includes special cameos by a ribbon snake, a bear, a herd of elephants, a vulture, an armadillo, a pony, and birds. As a bonus the bear and the pony appear in dreams. Add to the zoological references a pet cemetery.

Nature is Shultz’s major theme; the main conflict is man vs. nature. She evokes a strong sense of place, some of them sacred, in a style that is insightful, imaginative, intuitive, perceptive, and witty.

A few of my favorites:
“Something Hungry” has an eerie, mysterious air of “What is it? Where did it go?”

There’s a wonderful allusion to Beowulf in “Grendel’s Prayer to the Void” from Grendel’s point of view. “What’s a dragon gonna do?”

“Asking Price” is the title of the book as well as one of its poems. It is a transitional piece about the excitement of those finding a new and special house and the sadness of those giving it up.

The poet pays homage to Basho, a Seventeenth Century Japanese poet, widely regarded as the absolute master of haiku. Schultz wrote six stanzas very much in the haiku spirit.

I have written commentaries on several other volumes of poetry by Schultz: including Songs from the Shaper’s Heart, Outposts on the Border of Longing. Underscore, and Touchstones. Check her out at https://robertaschultz.com/bookstore. I’m currently enjoying her latest production Deep Ends which arrived in the mail recently. Watch out for a commentary
Soon.

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deep Ends is Roberta Schultz’s sixth book of poetry. It is divided into three sections with a total of 56 poems. From the beginning I had fun with the title. Lots of things have deep ends: pools, ponds, philosophies, aesthetics, beliefs, conceptions, and metaphysics. I also thought of going off the deep end as in going cuckoo. Is she possibly playing with Depends (deep-ends)? Nah.

Water is a strong motif reflected in some of the titles and much of the content. As an extension there are also references to white water, lifesaving, a cross chest carry, divining, and even the Waters of Babylon.

Schultz is a student of poetic forms, and she seems to enjoy using a variety of tropes, figures and devices including line repetition, haiku, couplets, triplets, a cento, a duplex, and, borrowed from visual arts, a diptych.

Schultz is a storyteller with tales of family lore, yoga, PTSD, and dementia. There is even a beer story. And don’t forget the drum references, Sakura, haiku, Tlingit, and my favorite, Mickey Hart. Shultz is a teacher so naturally there are references to classrooms and lessons. Nature tie-ins include birds and snakes. Human references include Robert Frost, Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Dickinson, Wendell Berry, William Shakespeare, Denton Loving, Jericho Brown, and Vine Deloria Jr.

Along with regional locations, there are references to Native Americans references including Ojibwe and references to Robert Frost, Atwood, Kingsolver, Dickinson, Wendell Berry, Shakespeare, Denton Loving, even Mickey Hart, Jericho Brown, Vine Deloria Jr,

I have written commentaries on five other volumes of poetry by Schultz: including Songs from the Shaper’s Heart, Outposts on the Border of Longing. Underscore, Touchstones, and Asking Price. Check her out at https://robertaschultz.com/bookstore

[Marianne Mersereau · Rating 5 out of 5]

From a Kentucky poet whose state has received more than its share of water in recent times comes a book that takes the reader off the "deep end" (in a good way) with poems swimming in emotional depth, music, memory and watery images. From its cover painting, "Dear Lake Michigan" through the three sections, "Wade in the Water," "The Water is Wide," and "By the Waters of Babylon," the reader's thirst is quenched by strong narratives, humor, and foot stomping delight as we can hear the drum beat and rhythms that cause these poems to rise to the surface following their deep dives. Schultz pulls from her experience as a life guard, teacher, musician, sister and daughter among other roles in crafting these memorable poems. She also pays homage to another beloved Kentucky poet, Wendell Berry, in her poem, "I Heed Wendell Berry's Advice on How to Poem." As we read this collection, we do indeed "breathe in to flood all senses with the splash" of her wonderful words.