Eating Enough Pure Light to become a Constellation

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Can a person eat enough pure light to become a constellation in the Milky Way? Apparently John Bradley believes Thomas McGrath did exactly this. McGrath scholars and those unacquainted with his work will enjoy this collection of 78 poems by 74 writers, including a previously unpublished McGrath poem. Some of the poets included are McGrath's peers; others are students and readers who continue to benefit from McGrath's radiance. This homage to a bright star coalesces into a book that is a constellation of luminous navigation points for humanity.

With a preface by Bradley and an introduction by Robert Edwards, Eating the Pure Light is divided into four sections. Bradley reveals that a concert by the folk singer, song writer, and labor scholar Bucky Halker inspired the book's organization.

The first segment, "The Grip of McGrath," concentrates on recollections of McGrath as a folk hero, including his resistance to the House Committee on Un-American Activities. George Kalamaras points out "you never gave up the names." Phil Woods quotes a McGrath poem: "At midnight, my love and I are riding / Down the old high roads of inexhaustible light''; then Woods infers "The brother's gone, but his magik lives." While the tone of some poems is elegiac, many are celebratory, the candle that mourns and praises simultaneously.

"Intrepid Wanderer," the second section, presents very short poems, some only five or six lines, the shortest only three lines. Even though McGrath is best known for creating long, complex poems, this part celebrates his veneration for the power of brevity. As an example, consider Kathleen Winter's contribution:

"Late Moon"

The moon is very old
and will rise late.
Have a little patience
with her. She has seen
every battlefield on earth.

And James Grabill's "Sunflowers" delivers "Ten-thousand farm years pass / as cottonwoods tower over a cricket. /…/ Did we ever have enough love?" Whether the light comes reflected from the moon or is collected by a sunflower, the poems in this collection illuminate.

Titled "Poems against Fear," part three addresses social and political topics, often by regarding McGrath as a champion of common people. "[B]ut you taught us well, my friend; / We're still here, plugging the leaks and patching the sails. / … / Day by day, we send out the little dove of a poem," asserts Michael Henson, acknowledging that the work McGrath undertook is not finished but still continues through the lightness of doves. Joseph Gastiger addresses Nicola Sacco, asking a number of searing questions: "Have the pale Irenas painting watch dials /claimed their fair wages /… / Have the last rebel miners on Blair Mountain / climbed to that cool place / where the bricklayers and bootblacks / swig the sallow wine of dandelions?" While radium on the face of a watch glows in the dark, the women who worked in this industry are like the miners of dark coal, symbols of the working poor's energy.

The pure light of "Tom McGrath's Shoes," the book's fourth part, encourages the reader to engage the world. Susan Eisenberg's "The Elder," dedicated to McGrath, well captures the brilliance of yet another light, the mentor's hands as beacons, guiding the apprentice.

Scraps of burlap and silk, handfuls
of seawater, stories without
direction, clouds that formed
no definite shape. All these
he rolled between large palms
that farmed Dakota
until gradually we, too,
heard the poems in our fingertips.

Poet, scholar, teacher, skeptic, communist, atheist, friend of common people, Thomas McGrath stands tall in these pages. His love of words, his refusal to cooperate with Senator Joseph McCarthy, his compassion for the living, and his energy continue to spark the work of many. As Robert Edwards says in the introduction, McGrath "was a giant. He stepped over houses. We fall into his footprints and need a ladder to climb out."

Included are poems by poets of McGrath's generation as well as Bradley's, from Gene Frumkin and Naomi Replansky to Kent Johnson and Denise Duhamel. While I wouldn't characterize the poets represented in this anthology as disciples of McGrath, to say he touched their essence seems accurate. The poems here represent neither a choir nor a brass band marching in lockstep. Instead this book affirms that McGrath's light still radiates through a growing constellation. Every voice that acknowledges McGrath makes the light more potent.

John Bradley, ed. Eating the Pure Light: Homage to Thomas McGrath. Omaha: Backwaters Press, 2009. Paper, 155 pages.