Poetry New York

Review of the forgiveness Parade

04/28/08

Jeffery McDaniel’s the forgiveness Parade is a perfect escape from your own life to a funny painful reality that is McDaniel’s poetry. The First section is full of the quirky, loving yet broken relationship he has with his parents. Making his words fit nicely next to the clearness of poets like Frank O’Hara. But with a modern day twist makes reading or listening to him pleasurable. His ability to place wonder mixed with pain into every poem keeps you captivated from begging to end. His work is very similar to many stage poets although unlike most performers his poetry stands alone on the page just the same as hearing it out loud. He pulls right on to the page with lines like “Consequence was a planet whose orbit we couldn’t respect” and “bobbing like chaperones forced to walk the plank”. This kind of writing is clear to anyone but is still complex enough to feel like real poetics. Jeffery is a humorous poet but his work can often leave with a twisted feeling in your stomach with the imagery no one want to think of as being a reality for anyone.