The Shamble

by Steve Lambert

Steve Lambert’s second poetry collection, The Shamble, doesn’t just pick up where his first, Heat Seekers, left off. Though these new poems share some of the same aesthetic concerns as the earlier work, Lambert experiments more with form and structure in this new book. These poems are gritty and vivid, as one would expect, but present now is a touch of surreality, and a stronger sense of play.

78 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 29, 2021

About the author

Steve Lambert's writing has appeared in Louisiana Literature, Chiron Review, Saw Palm, The Pinch, Broad River Review, Tampa Review, Longleaf Review, Cortland Review, and many other places. In 2018 he won Emrys Journal’s Nancy Dew Taylor Poetry Prize. He is the recipient of four Pushcart Prize nominations and was a Rash Award in Fiction finalist. He is the author of the poetry collections Heat Seekers (2017) and The Shamble (2021), the chapbook In Eynsham (2020), and the fiction collection The Patron Saint of Birds (2020). His novel, Philisteens, came out in May, 2021. The collaborative fiction text, Mortality Birds, written with Timothy Dodd, was published by Southernmost Books in 2022. In 2024 Southernmost Books reissued his fiction collection, Patron Saint of Birds. He is from Florida.

Reviews

[H.L.R. H.L.R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Shamble is a highly accomplished collection of poetry that serves as a profound philosophical treatise on modern life. Though these poems are extremely personal to Lambert (particularly when he shares vivid reconstructed memories of his childhood, writes of challenging lived experiences as an adult, and paints portraits of specific locations from his travels), there is a universality to them, and his (at times world-weary though never self-indulgent) wisdom is present on every page.

There are four distinct sections to this collection, each able to stand alone but with common threads that subtly tie them together—meditations on love in all its forms, youth and aging, family and belonging, environment and unbelonging. Lambert’s observations of the natural world around him are captured beautifully. The second part of this collection, ‘In Eysham’, consists of poems set in England and Wales, and I was so impressed by Lambert’s perfect(ly accurate) descriptions of the geography, weather and mood of my homeland: Lambert is American, and he has written about my lifelong surroundings far better than I ever could!

I also loved the poems that Lambert penned as tributes to/after some of the great English poets (Clare, Wordsworth, Larkin). It was interesting to read these poems and feel the sense of history that weighs heavily on the shoulders of all modern artists at work today, the sense of knowing what has come before and feeling responsible for what comes after, the pressure that comes with creating but also the joy and privilege of writing.

The ‘Concerning…’ poems in this collection provide fascinating philosophical insights from the deepest corners of the mind of the modern man. The poems concerning genealogy and legacy I particularly enjoyed, and I found to be personally thought-provoking. There are frequent flashes of existentialist and nihilistic thought throughout The Shamble which were interesting in turn—lines like “All things / carry within / some undoing.” and “Tomorrow is just today, again. / Every poem could be titled “Sisyphus.”” stuck with me.

I mentioned themes of belonging and unbelonging in these poems; I got the impression that the speaker of the poems frequently felt unmoored in life, often finding himself in the wrong place physically and/or mentally, either overtly or subconsciously seeking meaning wherever he goes (meaning in his days, in his art, in his relationships, in his existence), perpetually seeking the great elusive Something while confronted with the mundanity of reality. These philosophical investigations give this collection such depth; I thought this especially when I read part 4 of the book which features several poems written in 2020 at the start of the pandemic: however cynical the speaker may feel about the world (in lines like, “The Big Whatever made whatever. / The dysfunctional bureaucracy / of things: // we politely die while you / lean on your shovel.”), family and love are the constants in his life, and he knows it.

There is an underlying darkness to these poems that follows the speaker and the reader. Lambert frequently contrasts the past with the present and reflects on youth and aging. The first part is heavy with nostalgia, and a sense of loss prevails throughout (sometimes an obvious loss, sometimes abstract, undefinable). The poems about his family are poignant and moving, his verse is controlled and assured, his nature writing superb. ‘The Shamble’ is a brilliant achievement, straight from the heart and soul of a hugely talented poet, presented to us in startling clarity, leaving plenty of room for one’s own thoughts.

Poem I couldn’t stop thinking about for days: Gretel & Hansel

Other personal favourite poems: Beachcombing / In St. Mawes / On Learning / The Here and Now and Then / Concerning Things Kafka Said Better

[Scott Cumming · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steve Lambert's Philisteens is definitely one of my favourite novels of the year and his latest collection of poetry lives up to this. Lambert is infused with the influence of English and Welsh poets who have gone before, but writes in a voice that is distinctly his own.

He ruminates on the big questions in small moments and ultimately smiles wryly and thumbs his nose at death and existentialism taking time to enjoy the here and now. In the second part of the chapbook, we experience a trip to England in which he muses on English-ness and the good ole British weather in a stranger in a strange land type way that paints a perfect picture.

Poetry doesn't pay the bills these days, but it can certainly fill your heart and mind with warmth on a cold wintry night and when it's done as well as this it can stave off those awful thoughts and teach you that it ain't so bad to thumb your nose once in a while.

[C.W. Blackwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Shamble, Lambert offers a deeply meditative exploration of memory and place. From Florida, where “the rain will never stop, only subside and come again” to the South of England where “ghosts of black and grey friars prowl the narrow streets like night cats,” his keen observations and lush lyricism provides a very satisfying read.