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Homeless Chronicles from Abraham to Burningman by Gerard Sarnat:
A Review by David Fraser
Homeless Chronicles from Abraham to Burningman by Gerard Sarnat (California Institute of Arts and Letters' Pessoa Press, 2010)
takes us on a journey from the sensual,
innocent stages of growing up to an end reflection on whether "these jottings (will) see the light of day."
In the space between Gerard alludes to the holocaust of WW11 and to more modern day attempts at genocide
such as Darfur and Choeung Ek. He talks about his experience with the homeless, the irregular people as
he wanders "the asphalt with a toolbox of hope." He is at his best when he is concrete and earthy with
his language. He describes Big Bad Bill, a dumpster diver with "weeping ankles wrapped in weeping rags"
as he searches for "fungoid muffins, rancid tuna" from the trash.
In "Irregular People: M-W-F" written in short three line stanzas, we encounter graphically who the poet sees on
his rounds at a community clinic - " a bizarre ex-con", Mona Lisa who "sashays in/mustache clipped, cig hanging,
and says/Them shemele hormones sure work great!" Gerard says in one stanza.
"Billie Holiday cocoa butter double,
demure in torn tight jeans and pink plastic sandals
doesn't even know I exist."
Who are the homeless in this collection? They are the people of the street obviously but
also the homeless are the WW11 refugees of his roots, the kids like himself who grew up
coping with a multicultural world of the American melting pot. In the poem, "My Odyssey,
My Illiad" we see the author as a refugee far from home trying to return from the wars and
the constant battles of his professional life as a modern day Odysseus. Here he becomes
most lyrical and the cadence carries the narrative of the poem along with it.
"Polishing off today's lineup of dopers and loners,
users and losers, screamers, moaners, schemers,
smashed shoulders and dreams."
Further into the collection the journey takes the reader to a more personal and familial level in
the section, Bringing A Little Back Home, where he deals with the mundane of watering plants,
philosophical conflicts with neighbours that allude to Robert Frost's ironic line "good fences
make good neighbours", relationships with his daughter and spouse, memories of his mother,
a whimsical confessional about an affair and finally aging parents. In the process we get a sense of the writer's
own aging. He says, "I am a seawater sac, no one and everything/ an ocean of light." In the concluding poem
he closes by reflecting on his family.
"At one with my Maker, I feast on these
dear ones who comprehend.
We cook, sit down, join hands 'round
the table before dinner."
The Homeless Chronicles is an interesting, often lyrical response to the historical
and personal passage of time, the man and the writer from Abraham to Burningman.
Gerard Sarnat splits time between his San Francisco Bay Area forest home and Southern California's beaches,
where he and his wife care for their first grandson. Gerry is a seeker and Jewbu, a father of three, physician to the
disenfranchised, past CEO and Stanford professor, and virginal writer 'til the recent tender age of sixty-two. He has
been published or is forthcoming in print and electronic literary journals including EZAAPP, The Hiss Quarterly,
Pens on Fire, Poets Against War, Thieves Jargon, Underground Voices, Flutter, Jack, Atavar, Wilderness House Review,
Aha!Poetry, Spindle, Defenestration, Black Zinnias,The Furnace Review, Stonetable Review , Bird and Moon, LoudPoet,
SoMa, SNReview, Subtle Tea, Language and Culture, River Walk Journal, and Juked among others. "Just Like the Jones',"
about his experience caring for Jonestown survivors, was solicited by The Jonestown Annual Report and will appear later
this year. He has been accepted into a four person writers' cooperative by
The California Institute of Arts and Letters; Pessoa Press plans to publish his first book.
Web Site with Puchase Information
Email: Gerard Sarnat
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