Soul Make a Path Through Shouting

Rating:
Summary: A strong poetic voice
Review: I knew the poet during my studies at Stanford University and was thus interested in reading his verse. I first read some anthologized poems, then stumbled upon this collection. Cassells is a highly talented poet with a magical command of language. His best poems are the ones on general themes (Down from the Houses of Magic, A Schadrach Chorus) in which he fuses keen observation with an excellent ear and thereby creates an exquisite music. He is one of very few living authors that can send me to my dictionary to look up a word, witnessing to his vast storehouse of language. I found the sequence of poems on AIDS victims moving, but perhaps a touch too self-absorbed -- more like journal entries than highly-crafted works of art. Not that I can fault him for this, since the poems evidently issued from very grievous personal losses; but as mentioned, he is better in the other poems. If there is anything to criticize in his work it is that there is scarcely any lightness or joviality -- no witty edge to relieve the weighty and lugubrious subjects he broods over. Perhaps an even more mature Cassells will be able to incorporate this dimension into his voice.