Poetry Corner

Hat's Off To A Gentleman in Moscow

By Evelyn Kahan

(This poem was written in response to the review of this book in the last the Pacific Grove Beacon Issue)

The book opened me

Exposed my pages

Showed me at closer range

A clearer view.

And all-encompassing

Details: the essences distilled.

A universe.

Future, past.

The proletariat and the splendor

How did the author do this?

The characters have life.

Fiction but I feel them,

Feel for them,

Feel with them wether

Blushing or stone-faced.

Scope, astounding

Opulence and poverty of spirit

A history and a blurry future.

Fact and imagination.

Words and ramifications.

Towles seems to know the universe and all it offers.

I take the ride

With The Count in his fullness.

My life recalled

Plus wonderings for the future.

If I could write like that!

Have the entirety of what I’ve

Observed, pondered and digested

To give to you, to the world.

If I could know myself

As deeply as Towles knows his characters.

Or does the author know more of his characters

Than his self?,

Is it easier to see out than in?

Realizations

Cascade into our souls at an irregular pace.

Eye opening.

Perhaps as we take our final breath,

Then the unsettling rattle

As our soul takes its leave

Perhaps then

We see the universe.

Depart in awe.