In Shocking the Dark, the poet Robert Lowes does just that, illuminating and exploring some of the darkest chapters in American history. In “The Temple of the Lost Cause,” Lowes ruminates on a painting in a funeral home that depicted Robert E. Lee holding a sleeping white child and a Bible on his lap. Lowes examines how such portrayals of Confederate figures keep the “lost cause” of the Confederacy alive and well in the South: “Inside the gilt frame, the Lost Cause/ wasn’t lost, wasn’t subject to slaughter./ God’s leather-bound word guarded the boy.”
Along with the ruminations on Lee, Lowes features the Swiss-born German painter Paul Klee, who used his art to defy the Nazis. In other poems, such as a section called “Overnight Snow: Haiku and Senryu,” he speaks to the banality of American life: divorce, therapy, friends moving away, antidepressants, drinking coffee, making small talk with a waitress, passing a panhandler on the street and “the snowstorm I feared/ lovely/ coming down.”
—Grace Copps in America
This is a collection of longer form poetry, haiku, and senryū by Robert Lowes. The first section "Some Last Ditch" consists of 17 longer poems. The second section "Overnight Snow" is dedicated to 52 haiku and senryū, with four poems per page. My favorite haiku in this section are: (1) moose on the slope / staring down / at traffic, (2) swarming the yard / I thought was mine / a flock of grackles, and (3) frozen ground / pigeons nodding yes / to everything. Many of his haiku and senryū resonate with the section title by focusing on winter and Christmas scenes with family. The third section "After Paul Klee: Paintings" features longer poems inspired by this Swiss- born German painter. The fourth section "Next Exit" consists of mostly longer poems, but it also includes a haiku sequence titled "Fiftieth Class Reunion." The haiku in this sequence are mostly observational. This haiku stood out in the sequence for its strong emotional impact: stage-four survivor / the reflex of my hand / clutching his shoulder. His poem "The Goldfish" includes these two lines: A body electric, Whitman's pet, / shocks the dark with a flash of gold. Lowe's acknowledges the darkness of human life and suffering, yet he also disturbs the darkness in some of his poems through glimpses of light as Lowe's writes "with tongues of fire / and night visions as bright / as a thousand flood lamps." Lowes is a former journalist and was a reporter for Medscape Medical News. It's clear that his career background has informed some of his poetry as he writes about a range of socio-political issues, yet he has also found a philosophical voice in some of his poems as well. Readers will feel the shock reverberating throughout this book as Lowes wrestles with the psychological dimensions of human life.
Jacob Salzer in Frogpond