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Iron Angels, by Geoff Landis: a cosmic poetry collection is reviewed.

Astrophysicist and multi-award winning writer/poet Geoff Landis releases his first poetry book: Iron Angels (reviewed by Noizy1).

Iron Angels by Geoff Landis
2009,Van Zeno Press, 55 pages, $19.95
ISBN 978-0-9789244-7-8

The scientist and poet have much in common: both are in the business of experimentation and invention, both dare to wonder and strive to see the universe in brilliant new ways, both are agents of creativity. In the sciences poetry finds fertile ground in which to flourish, for science pulsates with a wild poetic heart. Here the poet will discover a boundless source of subject matter, especially if the poet also happens to be a career scientist.

Astrophysicist for NASA, Mars Rover team member, and multi-award winning writer/poet Geoff Landis is just such a person. He brings to bare his formidable scientific knowledge and poetic skills in his thoroughly entertaining and accessible debut poetry collection Iron Angels. The book shines throughout with Landis’s uncanny wit, acute intelligence, and passion for the stars. It contains fifty-three stylistically variegated inspirations in all (no less than fourteen of which were first printed in Asimov’s Science Fiction) that are chiefly speculative and steeped in the cosmic mysteries of astronomy and physics. Within its pages you will find lavishly penned works as well as eloquently minimalistic ones that employ a wide array of poetic forms. Many have the power to invoke a sense of awe and contemplation as they parade the mind’s eye with fantastic visions of galactic majesty, here typified in the following haiku:

“Swelling blue-white star
outshines the bright galaxy
spraying iron, salt: us”

Iron Angels is super-charged with wonder; it sparkles with Landis’s unique futurist vision. You will read strikingly conceptual works of unbound cleverness and originality such as “Gulliver’s Boots”, a piece about the pros and cons of exponential footwear that takes the reader on a wild trip, and “Christmas (When We All Get Time Machines)”, an instant classic as comical as it is cunning. Consider the following verse:

“Hiding Christmas gifts became a snap:
No worry of junior sniffing out the hiding places.
Wrap it,
put it where the tree will be and
/zap/
to December 24th, 11:59 pm. …”

Throughout this collection you will discover all variety of effectively emotive poems that are at times profound, insightful, melancholy, poignant, and on the whole deeply human. Additionally, you’ll find several works that refuse to take themselves at all seriously -- including a few of unabashed silliness, such as the charmingly whimsical rhyming verse “If Angels Ate Apples” and the lyrical spoof of a very familiar Janis Joplin ditty entitled “SSTO”, which begins:

“Oh Lord won’t you buy me an SSTO
The gov`ment’s got shuttles, but I want to go. …”

In Iron Angels you will also find works on romance and Einstein, sex and Joe Haldeman stories, love and the planet of love. Not to mention poems about aliens, cats, and cats who are aliens. “Lurker is Very Interested” is one of a few “cat-poems” Landis wrote in collaboration with his wife Mary Turzillo; it has the ability to delight any cat-lover, behold:

“Lurker is very interested in watching me write.
She’s not quite sure what a poem is, but
she wants to help.
The pen tip wriggles so salaciously;
is it to eat, to jump, or to kill?
She’s very fond of poetry.
Maybe it has something to do with the
mystery of salmon.
Maybe, later, she can eat it.”

Yet, there is much more to Iron Angels than science fiction, astronomy, and cats. All the poems here range the entire spectrum of human emotions and several are quite down-to-earth. A couple of them would even be right at home in most mainstream poetry journals: “Snapshots”, for instance, is an introverted free verse poem that speaks of self doubt and identity crises, asking: is that stranger in the old family photo really me? “Your Ghost in My Machine” is an ironic poem written in a minimalistic, deadpan style about a defunct romantic relationship. “Arabica, about 10, after the Poets League” is a humorous prose-poem that casually explores the curious human propensity to gossip.

On the whole Iron Angels is a fresh and fun collection of mind expanding poems that are clear and comfortable to read –- a true dazzler that is worth picking up despite a price tag that pushes the envelope for books of this sort.

review by Anthony Bernstein - Noizy1*

(First printed in Star*Line, Jan/Feb 2009 issue)[i]

Submitted by Noizy1 on Monday, April 06, 2009 (03:44:09) (988 reads)

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Re: Iron Angels, by Geoff Landis: a cosmic poetry collection is reviewed.
by Anonymous on Saturday, May 02, 2009 (12:30:59)

It's a fun collection of poetry-- a lot of the poems had been previously published in Asimov's and Star*Line and other places, but there are a lot of new ones, too. One of the poems, "Abd Al Muqeet", is almost more of a flash-fiction than a poem, but it's very powerful.

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