At the Water Puppet Theater

Jim Fairhall

It's really getting to the point now where Vietnam War poetry has gotten to be something of a cliché. Still, there are thousands upon thousands of people, some of them poets, who still have a lot of things to work out with themselves. Poetry as therapy is all well and good, but eventually one has to ask himself whether it's possible to write yet another book of poetry about the Vietnam War that doesn't sound trite.

Thankfully, the answer is yes, and Jim Fairhall did it with At the Water Puppet Theater. He did it partly by writing not just about the war itself, but about his trip back to Vietnam, that (we get the impression) was part of that thing-dealing for Fairhall (and a part that seems to have worked, at least to an extent). The other part of how he did it was the surprising number of formal poems in this book. One doesn't expect rhyme about the Vietnam War (at least, not from anyone but the Charlie Daniels Band). Fairhall, a literature professor, is acquainted enough with the ins and outs of what makes good formal poetry that the work here doesn't sound like what one fears just about any modern formal poem not coming from Marilyn Hacker will sound like (heavy on the end-stops, with words that make other poets cringe in terror, like "soul"). Fairhall's diction has an easy grace to it, and he seems to have almost mastered the art of making formal poetry sound as easy as just sitting around shooting the breeze. There are a few times when this knowledge fails him ("Country Journey," especially, has a wince-worthy quality to it), but those times are few and far between. Jim Fairhall's turned in a good, solid piece of work, and one worth reading.