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UFOs explained
Oct. 12th, 2024 01:56 pmReview of "The Roswell Poems" by Rane Arroyo
Arroyo, Rane, 2008, The Roswell Poems, WordFarm press, www.wordfarm.net, ISBN-10 1-60226-001-X; ISBN-13 978-1-60226-001-6, perfect-bound paperback, 71 p., $12.
One poem or many, the parts of "The Roswell Poems" carry the reader at page-turning pace through a slightly fictionalized version of whatever happened or didn't happen near Roswell back in the 1940s, and its aftermath. The poems are identified as separate, but none have ever been published before, and they are as sequential as chapters in a novel. There are 43 of them, with a halfpage summary of salient facts by way of introduction.
The first poem, "Before the hoopla: 1946," sets the scene with a series of couplets:
A week's sweat work is rewarded
with illuminated beers in dull bars.
Roswell doesn't suspect that it's
to be the New World Bethlehem.
One of the curious things about this collection, or epic, is that many different forms are used, including a screenplay. Yet I didn't feel that the frequent changes in form detracted from the experience. In fact, if anything the combination of disparate elements makes the whole seem like a scrapbook, and therefore more real. This was deliberate. The eclectic format also makes it easy for the author to naturally include a variety of perspectives on events or supposed events.
From "Eyewitnesses"
We leaned against each other and
glorified being human. Invasions,
evasions, visions. We made Heaven
crash! Yes, we were that beautiful.
And from "Enter the cowboy"
The unknown exists without our
permission–how is that possible?
Chaves County is suddenly full of aliens
that don't speak Spanish, don't linger.
Mac's solar plexus has an eclipse.
Our cowboy tries to sleep
So the tangled tale unfolds, following the chronology of known events and pseudoevents, not necessarily becoming more clear about facts, but exposing emotions and conflicts and implications by the barrel. The various parts of the narrative have titles like "Major Jesse Marcel races to the debris site to take notes" and "The world outside of Roswell exists." 6° of separation don't exist between fact and fantasy are between any two people who know or hear anything about Roswell's aliens. There are so many layers of humanity wrapped around a tiny nugget of extraterrestrial suspense, that even if the nugget isn't anything, even if it was never there at all, this no longer matters. Absent emerald giants striding around the planet and vaporizing entire office blocks, this business of alien invasion seems to be a solitary sport, at least where species are concerned.
From "Back to the scene of the cosmic crime"
Brazel sees a Joseph and Mary
and son crossing the desert
(¿Jose, María and singing niño?).
He won't give them up to the enemy,
ah, to his own army.
Arroyo has done an excellent and comprehensive job of taking a muddy and confusing tale and turning it into a pellucid and confusing one. Each one of these poems is a delight to read. Tantalizing glimpses of what might or might not be true develop as one travels through the book, rendering "The Roswell Poems" a sort of ghost story, albeit an inconclusive one. The perfect gift for any spectator at Roswell's banquet.
Arroyo, Rane, 2008, The Roswell Poems, WordFarm press, www.wordfarm.net, ISBN-10 1-60226-001-X; ISBN-13 978-1-60226-001-6, perfect-bound paperback, 71 p., $12.
One poem or many, the parts of "The Roswell Poems" carry the reader at page-turning pace through a slightly fictionalized version of whatever happened or didn't happen near Roswell back in the 1940s, and its aftermath. The poems are identified as separate, but none have ever been published before, and they are as sequential as chapters in a novel. There are 43 of them, with a halfpage summary of salient facts by way of introduction.
The first poem, "Before the hoopla: 1946," sets the scene with a series of couplets:
A week's sweat work is rewarded
with illuminated beers in dull bars.
Roswell doesn't suspect that it's
to be the New World Bethlehem.
One of the curious things about this collection, or epic, is that many different forms are used, including a screenplay. Yet I didn't feel that the frequent changes in form detracted from the experience. In fact, if anything the combination of disparate elements makes the whole seem like a scrapbook, and therefore more real. This was deliberate. The eclectic format also makes it easy for the author to naturally include a variety of perspectives on events or supposed events.
From "Eyewitnesses"
We leaned against each other and
glorified being human. Invasions,
evasions, visions. We made Heaven
crash! Yes, we were that beautiful.
And from "Enter the cowboy"
The unknown exists without our
permission–how is that possible?
Chaves County is suddenly full of aliens
that don't speak Spanish, don't linger.
Mac's solar plexus has an eclipse.
Our cowboy tries to sleep
So the tangled tale unfolds, following the chronology of known events and pseudoevents, not necessarily becoming more clear about facts, but exposing emotions and conflicts and implications by the barrel. The various parts of the narrative have titles like "Major Jesse Marcel races to the debris site to take notes" and "The world outside of Roswell exists." 6° of separation don't exist between fact and fantasy are between any two people who know or hear anything about Roswell's aliens. There are so many layers of humanity wrapped around a tiny nugget of extraterrestrial suspense, that even if the nugget isn't anything, even if it was never there at all, this no longer matters. Absent emerald giants striding around the planet and vaporizing entire office blocks, this business of alien invasion seems to be a solitary sport, at least where species are concerned.
From "Back to the scene of the cosmic crime"
Brazel sees a Joseph and Mary
and son crossing the desert
(¿Jose, María and singing niño?).
He won't give them up to the enemy,
ah, to his own army.
Arroyo has done an excellent and comprehensive job of taking a muddy and confusing tale and turning it into a pellucid and confusing one. Each one of these poems is a delight to read. Tantalizing glimpses of what might or might not be true develop as one travels through the book, rendering "The Roswell Poems" a sort of ghost story, albeit an inconclusive one. The perfect gift for any spectator at Roswell's banquet.
