{"id":142,"date":"2016-09-13T21:58:33","date_gmt":"2016-09-13T21:58:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/?p=142"},"modified":"2016-09-13T21:59:10","modified_gmt":"2016-09-13T21:59:10","slug":"abandoned-homeland-by-jeff-gundy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/?p=142","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned Homeland by Jeff Gundy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Abandoned Homeland, <\/em><\/strong>by Jeff Gundy. <\/strong>Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2015. 92 pages. $16, paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow else to describe this absurd, lovely world?\u201d is the question Jeff Gundy poses in the titular poem of his seventh book of poetry, Abandoned Homeland. <\/em><\/p>\n

Gundy attempts to answer that question, and succeeds, in poems that feature the poet as the main character. They are poems concerned with observation, contemplation, and rumination on the past and time, as well as meditation on humanity\u2019s place in the grand scheme of nature and the sublime. In fact, the book starts off with such observation and contemplation about the human body in the poem aptly titled \u201cThe Body.\u201d It is a belief and a trust in the importance of our soul and of miracles, even in places we don\u2019t often look:<\/p>\n

\u2026 The body is more than some clay jar<\/p>\n

with a dismal eternal glob inserted. It is to be trusted,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

especially when it says Not too fast. <\/em>The waterfall twists<\/p>\n

and rumbles, alien, unstoppable, coming up stunned<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and foaming on the rocks, broken into froth and magic<\/p>\n

every second, hurrying onward as if not changed at all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Though Gundy casts himself as the main character, other characters that figure prominently in these poems, either at the forefront or whispering quietly in the background, are the people and places throughout the Midwest. Whether it\u2019s listening to a three-piece band in the Underdog Caf\u00e9 or speaking of literary theme in an Ohio classroom, Gundy uses words and phrases that lets his reader experience the setting along with him, such as in \u201cRhapsody at the Underdog Caf\u00e9\u201d:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Run your fingers through my soul, <\/em>reads the poster, but I don\u2019t<\/p>\n

Believe I will. We\u2019re barely even friends. A happy three-piece band<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

is playing in a corner of the Underdog Caf\u00e9. My new friends<\/p>\n

didn\u2019t know any of their songs, but I knew them all\u2014\u201cWagon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wheel,\u201d \u201cSan Francisco Bay Blues,\u201d \u201cI Can See Clearly Now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second cup of coffee is a dime cheaper and better<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

than the first. \u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gundy also wants to remind the reader that the place he, and everyone else, comes back to is \u201cthe country of the mind.\u201d Preoccupations and meditations on his family, his past, and specific places serve to remind us that though we are all different, we seek to escape the world through such thoughts. No matter what we might do to escape, Gundy reminds us that we are all exiles in an abandoned homeland, and if anyone tries to stop us from being ourselves or from leaving, he tells us, \u201cThey\u2019ll have to let us go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014Brandy Clark, Moon City Review<\/em><\/p>\n

\"gundy-abandoned-homeland\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Abandoned Homeland, by Jeff Gundy. Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2015. 92 pages. $16, paper. \u201cHow else to describe this absurd, lovely world?\u201d is the question Jeff Gundy poses in the titular poem of his seventh book of poetry, Abandoned Homeland. Gundy attempts to answer that question, and succeeds, in poems that feature the poet … Continue reading Abandoned Homeland by Jeff Gundy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mooncityreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}