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Looking for the Uncertian Past

Daniel shows, indeed, a range of finished achievement. There are some excellent poems here-such as the beautiful “Opus 75”, for that neglected master Samuel Menashe, underivatively echoic of the older poet’s manner and characteristic subject, or the powerful, poised elegy on the fine jazz singer Susannah McCorkle after her suicide in 2001. Very different in tone, but equally accomplished, are the witty (and pointed quatrains) of “White on Rice”-the Rice being Condoleeza Rice. Amongst a number of assured love poems is “Light and Line and Lightness”, a minor masterpiece of affirmative tenderness. Moran’s is a distinctive American voice which deserves an attentive hearing.

- Elizabeth Heywood, Acumen Magazine, England

Looking for the Uncertain Past is a pleasurable collection to read, because it affords an ease of intimacy with the poet, sharing the everyday irony, fun and sadness, pleasure and pain of being. In the American tradition of poets, these poems offer the naturalness of Whitman¹s diction, wed with the economy of Dickinson¹s lyricism, Moran¹s poems speak of a poetic awe of reality, informed by intelligent observation. He brings together two very different transcendental styles of American writing. Like William Carlos Williams, he unites them by meshing the best of both. These penetrating poems  eulogize bringing surprising insights with precise but everyday language, and occasionally with Chaucerian humor that rises to hilarity. They are both elegant and accessible and refresh the spirit with enjoyable contemplation. Moran¹s poetry talks with sardonic wit and sensitive spirit without sending us puzzling away from its lively clarities. A sharp intellect is also at work in these writings, an eye for absurdity as well as for the splendors in the everyday. Moran¹s poems proceed naturally without contrivance, and the ironies pointed out often strike us as witty afterthoughts. Yet, we catch our breath and grieve or laugh with the poet in unison with his compassionate humor. His writing is both sensitive and muscular and divulges the mind of a rational observer who does not miss nuance and cannot be fooled by artifice. His virtuosity is so natural that it does not take us away with the music, but keeps us in the thought.

- Daniela Gioseffi

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