Looking for the Uncertain Past
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 Whitmanšs diction,
wed with the economy of Dickinsonšs lyricism, Moranšs 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. Moranšs 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.
Moranšs 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